USC commencement speakers pull out after valedictorian speech cancellation

Israel-Hamas war protests on college campuses have been ongoing for weeks. At the University of South California (USC), professors who were going to give commencement speeches are pulling out in protest of the university’s decision to cancel its valedictorian’s speech and its main ceremony over safety concerns.

Valedictorian Asna Tabassum , a pro-Palestinian Muslim, was going to give a commencement speech until pro-Israel groups said Tabassum shared antisemitic statements on her social media.

Tabassum said the statements were not antisemitic but were out of precaution. The university canceled her speech, fueling further protests. At one point, USC called the Los Angeles Police Department, leading to the arrest of about 100 protesters.

Following the arrests, USC canceled its main ceremony , which would have involved about 65,000 people. The university said it had to take certain measures to ensure the students' safety and the security screenings would have taken too long to process with such a large crowd.

Each of the school's individual colleges are set to have their own smaller ceremonies.

Now, two of the people slated to give commencement speeches — C Pam Zhang and Safiya Noble — have pulled out.

"Asna’s removal, the administration’s refusal to engage in dialogue with student protestors, and the decision to invite LAPD forces onto campus, represent a violent and targeted refusal to allow true diversity of expression to flourish on campus," the two said in a joint statement . "The right to free speech and peaceful protest are not only fundamental to democracy, but a particular, proud feature of American universities."

Noble, a professor at UCLA, encouraged dozens of other projected speakers to join in boycotting USC.

USC is not the only college facing fallout of its handling of mass protests. There have been more than 800 arrests across university campuses since April 18.

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