Columbia student's mic cuts out during anti-Israel commencement speech: 'Dystopian'

NEW YORK CITY (TND) — Columbia University student Saham David Ahmed Ali experienced technical difficulties with her microphone while addressing the graduating class of the college’s Mailman School of Public Health Tuesday.

During the speech, Ali touched on subjects such as the Israel-Hamas war, reproductive services and removing New York City Police Department officers from campus.

"The silence on this campus and the pressure to say nothing while administration and professors assert that ‘we’re here for you’ while we’re actively witnessing the most televised genocide of our lives made me lose hope," she said at one point, later adding she found it "dystopian" to attend school while "witness[ing] the genocide of the Palestinian people."

While speaking on the conflict in Gaza, the audio of Ali’s microphone briefly cut out.

“The mass graves outside Al-Shifa hospital found while we sat in our classrooms and learned about learning about-,“ she said as the audio cut out. Members of the audience began shouting as Ali tested the microphone.

“Ok, it’s working,” Ali then said. However, the audio once again faltered as she repeated the line, eliciting chants of “let her speak” from the crowd. Ali then repeated the line a third time without interruption.

The brief loss of audio was "an unintentional technical glitch," according to a university spokesperson.

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The matter comes just days after another graduating Columbia student ripped up her diploma cover Friday in an apparent response to the school's handing of pro-Palestine campus protests.

Lawmakers are taking notice of the rise of anti-Israel sentiment at college campuses across the country. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told TND schools that "authorize, fund or facilitate events that promote violent antisemitism” should lose their federal funding.

“Universities and administrators across the nation have put students’ lives at risk by allowing their campuses to descend into anarchy,” Sen. Scott told TND. “Refusing to do that should cost them every last dime of their federal funding.”

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