NEW YORK/TEL AVIV – Pro-Palestinian protesters briefly disrupted a graduation ceremony at the University of Michigan on May 4 as universities holding commencements braced for more tensions generated over the war in the Gaza Strip.

Dozens of pro-Palestinian supporters – in kaffiyeh and graduation caps unfurled – held up Palestinian flags in the aisles of the ceremony at Michigan Stadium as a speaker invoked the school’s “Go Blue” slogan. Protesters marched down the centre aisle towards the stage, chanting “Regents, regents, you can’t hide. You are funding genocide”.

One person in the audience could be heard yelling back: “You’re ruining our graduation.” Some patrons sitting in private boxes hung Israeli flags from their seats as university police blocked the protesters from moving closer to the stage and pushed them towards a section in the back of the venue.

Overhead, a plane flying the message “Divest from Israel now! Free Palestine!” circled the stadium. Another plane with a banner offered a different message: “We stand with Israel. Jewish lives matter.”

The ceremony did not stop. Neither did the chanting, although how audible or distracting it was might have depended on where people sat in the stadium.

But the protesting is indicative of how the university in Ann Arbor and several other schools are wrestling with how to handle student protests during graduation ceremonies in May.

Indiana University Bloomington, Northeastern University and Ohio State University were set to hold graduation ceremonies over the weekend, with more scheduled across the country in coming weeks.

Meanwhile, at Ohio State, 38 people have been arrested, according to a tally by The New York Times; at Indiana University, 57; and at Northeastern University, 98 while at least 25 people were arrested on May 4 at the University of Virginia.

Pro-Palestinian students and their allies, for their part, have signaled that they will continue to challenge their universities over their financial ties to Israel and military companies, to express outrage over the violence in Gaza and to condemn aggressive treatment of protesters on campus.

“We aren’t going anywhere,” said Bryce Greene, 26, an Indiana University doctoral student and one of the protest organizers at the school’s campus in Bloomington. Greene said he believed there would be enough students around campus to sustain the protest over the summer, or until the school agreed to their demands to divest.

The arrests at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, were among the most prominent on May 4, after weeks of unrest across the country. In a news release, the university said the protesters had violated school policy on May 3 by setting up tents on the lawn and by using megaphones.

But the encampment was not forcibly removed then, the statement read, “given continued peaceful behavior and the presence of young children at the demonstration site, and due to heavy rain at night on May 3.”

By the afternoon of May 4, protesters were met with police officers in riot gear, who took down the encampment. At one point, police used chemical irritants against the crowd to get people to disperse.

The turmoil has added another complicated layer to graduation for students, many of whom had their high school senior year celebrations abruptly cut short by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

Universities have tried to ensure against major disruptions. Some schools plan to set up designated areas for protests in a bid to allow the ceremonies to go forward without quashing free speech.

And some schools – like Northeastern’s ceremony in Fenway Park – are adhering to strict rules limiting what can be taken inside the large ceremony venues. Many graduation venues already had limitations long before the protests.

The University of Michigan trained volunteers working at the school’s 54 ceremonies on “how to manage disruptions”. University officials were quick to note that peaceful protests are not uncommon at graduation or varsity events.

“This might include asking someone to relocate a sign or otherwise stop ongoing disruptive behaviour,” said Ms Colleen Mastony, a spokeswoman for the University of Michigan. “Our goal is to support a successful and celebratory event.”

On May 3 evening, a person not affiliated with the university was arrested after around 200 people gathered outside the University of Michigan Museum of Art to protest a dinner for recipients of honorary degrees, a spokesperson for the university police department said.

On May 4, no arrests were made among the roughly 75 protesters who demonstrated during the ceremony.

At least two schools have altered graduation ceremonies. The University of Vermont announced on May 3 that US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield would no longer deliver a commencement address scheduled for later this month.

The University of Southern California cancelled its valedictorian’s commencement speech and appearances by celebrity speakers, then axed its “main stage” commencement ceremony altogether, citing a possibility of disruptions.

On May 3, the university announced a “Trojan Family Graduate Celebration” in the famed Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for graduates to attend instead.

Over the last academic year, schools have met the protests of thousands of students in different ways. Some have negotiated with demonstrators over their demands while others have called the police.

While many protests have stopped short of physical confrontations, clashes have included the occupation of a university hall at Columbia University in New York, a violent attack by pro-Israel counterprotesters at UCLA, and vulgar and racist taunts hurled by white students at protesters at the University of Mississippi.

At least one student from the University of Mississippi now faces an internal school investigation as a result.

Over in Israel, thousands of Israelis protested on May 4, demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accept a ceasefire agreement with the Islamist movement Hamas that would see the remaining Israeli hostages brought home from Gaza.

At a rally in Tel Aviv that took place as Hamas officials were meeting Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo, relatives and supporters of the more than 130 hostages still in captivity said anything possible had to be done to bring them home.

“I’m here today to support a deal now, yesterday,” said Ms Natalie Eldor. “We need to bring them back. We need to bring all the hostages back, the live ones, the dead ones. We got to bring them back. We got to switch this government. This has got to end.” NYTIMES, REUTERS