A commencement speaker accused the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) of being involved in wiping out “Palestine from the face of the Earth” on Thursday, leading to several students walking out.
Megha M. Vemuri, the class of 2025 president at MIT, commended her classmates for their protests against Israel in response to the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent Gaza War.
“Last spring, MIT’s undergraduate body and graduate student union voted overwhelmingly to sever ties with the genocidal Israeli military. You called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and stood in solidarity with pro-Palestinian activists on campus. You faced threats, intimidation, and suppression from various directions, including your university officials,” Vemuri stated.
Her remarks elicited a mixed reaction of boos and cheers, as seen in a video obtained by Fox News Digital.
One attendee, holding what seemed to be a Palestinian flag, engaged in a scuffle with security.
As Vemuri continued speaking, some students decided to walk out, while others in the audience shouted “Shame.”
“But you persevered because the MIT community that I know would never condone a genocide. At this moment, as we prepare to graduate and move forward with our lives, there are no universities remaining in Gaza,” Vemuri added.
She went on to say, “We are witnessing Israel’s attempt to erase Palestine from the face of the earth. It is regrettable that MIT is complicit in this.”
Jewish and Israeli students left the event, and some protested as Vemuri accused the university of being “directly complicit in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.”
“The Israeli occupation forces are the only foreign military with which MIT has research connections. This means that Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people is not only supported by our country but also by our institution. As scientists, engineers, academics, and leaders, we have a duty to promote life, support aid efforts, call for an arms embargo, and continue to demand that MIT cut ties,” she insisted.
A graduating Israeli student, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Fox News Digital, “All of our families traveled a long way to attend the ceremony and were extremely disappointed. All the Jewish families, not just the Israelis, left the ceremony. The MIT administration approved and endorsed this.”
Following Vemuri’s speech at the commencement event on Thursday, she was informed that she would not be permitted to attend Friday’s undergraduate ceremony.
“With regard to MIT’s Commencement 2025 activities, the speech delivered by a graduating senior at Thursday’s OneMIT Commencement Ceremony was not the one provided by the speaker in advance. While that individual had a scheduled role at today’s Undergraduate Degree Ceremony, she was notified that she would not be permitted at today’s events,” a statement from an MIT spokesperson to Fox News Digital read.
“MIT supports free expression but stands by its decision, which was in response to the individual deliberately and repeatedly misleading Commencement organizers and leading a protest from the stage, disrupting an important Institute ceremony.”
College campuses across the U.S. have witnessed protests in the midst of the Gaza war.
MIT was among numerous campuses where anti-Semitic activists delivered inflammatory speeches and clashed with law enforcement.
Not far from MIT, Harvard is under significant pressure from the Trump administration over allegations of harboring “pro-terrorist” behavior on campus, resulting in the loss of millions in federal funding.
