Graduand dragged out from ceremony after protesting for Palestine
An Imperial graduate was removed from the graduation ceremony after displaying a sign stating “Imperial funds genocide” on Tuesday 3rd June. The protest, which has since been uploaded to social media, was a call for “divestment,” in response to what the student called Imperial’s “financial ties to the ongoing genocide and occupation of the Palestinian people”.
As part of graduands’ terms and conditions for the ceremony, they were not allowed to bring “sticks or rods, confetti cannons, tripods, flags (regardless of the size of the flag and also including items with flags on them such as: scarves, tshirts [sic] or any other clothing), noisemakers or air horns, alcohol, helium balloons and any other items that might potentially be used to disrupt the ceremony,” according to section 15 of the Graduation Day 2025 terms and conditions.
The now-graduate explained that following the protest, they were escorted away from the stage. “They [security] had a tight grip on me the whole time we walked through the back hallways,” they told Felix. Their cohort was the last to graduate, and the protestor had “anticipated being ejected.”
Imperial Action for Palestine was aware of the protest, and has said the protest was “affiliated with both Action for Palestine and the Imperial College Liberated Zone”.
A previous protest occurred outside Royal Albert Hall on Monday 2nd June as Imperial Business School held its graduation. It was conducted by an independent group not affiliated with any activist groups at Imperial.
The Israeli government has approved plans to escalate its offensive in Gaza, including a possible reoccupation of Palestinian territory. Israel resumed its offensive in Gaza earlier this year in March following the breaking of a US-brokered ceasefire, as well as the cessation of food, fuel, medicine, and aid supplies. 59 hostages remain in Gaza, with the most recent Palestinian Health Ministry data indicating a death toll of 54,500 Palestinians, following on from a death toll of 1,200 people and some 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials, taken during Hamas’s attack on the Nova festival on 7th October 2023.
