The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has banned the senior class president from attending commencement after she delivered an anti-Israel screed at a pre-graduation ceremony, saying she misled school officials about the content of her remarks.
The speaker, identified as Megha Vemuri by the Palestinian Youth Movement, accused the university of being complicit in “genocide” by refusing to cut ties with Israel in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas, which prompted Jerusalem to declare war.
“Right now, while we prepare to graduate and move forward with our lives, there are no universities left in Gaza,” said Ms. Vemuri, who wore a red keffiyeh over her graduation robe. “We are watching Israel try to wipe Palestine off the face of the earth, and it is a shame that MIT is a part of it.”
Her comments made Thursday at OneMIT, a pre-graduation event for both undergraduate and graduate students, prompted the university to bar her from attending Friday’s undergraduate degree 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 that was provided by the speaker in advance,” an MIT spokesperson said in a statement. “While that individual had a scheduled role at yesterday’s Undergraduate Degree Ceremony, she was notified that she would not be permitted at that day’s events.”
The statement continued: “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.”
MIT Chancellor Melissa Nobles told her in an email that participating in commencement is a “privilege,” according to the Boston Globe.
“You deliberately and repeatedly misled Commencement organizers,” Ms. Nobles said in the email. “While we acknowledge your right to free expression, your decision to lead a protest from the stage, disrupting an important institute ceremony, was a violation of MIT’s time, place and manner rules for campus expression.”
Ms. Nobles was interrupted by chants during her speech at Friday’s graduation ceremony, causing her to chastise the crowd.
“Excuse me,” Ms. Nobles said, as shown in a video posted on Boston.com. “I respect that you have a message to send, but this is not the time or place. Today is about our graduates and their families. Please respect them and allow me to continue.”
Her comments were met by cheers from some of the attendees.
That @MIT trains woke minds that fail to see the only genocidal entity in Gaza is Hamas is known.
But to ignore warnings & allow the class president to deliver hateful & dividing speech with no response from President Kornbluth who followed, shows the gravity of the situation!… pic.twitter.com/yFiEm6Ql1o
— Retsef Levi (@RetsefL) May 29, 2025
The MIT Jewish Alliance condemned Ms. Vemuri’s remarks, saying she “took the opportunity to hijack the ceremony and to dedicate the entirety of her speech to berating and defaming Israel and promoting Hamas-inspired propaganda.”
“MIT JAA is profoundly disappointed in the MIT leadership and administration who failed to prevent a rogue student from taking over yesterday’s graduation ceremony that was meant to celebrate the achievements of its student body,” said the organization in a Friday statement.
On the other side was the Palestinian Youth Movement, which accused MIT of banning Ms. Vemuri from graduation “as retaliation for her courage and principled stand.”
Guy Ziskind, an MIT doctoral student who graduated Friday, was one of several commenters on social media who said banning Ms. Vemuri from graduation wasn’t enough.
“She and her ’comrades’ ruined commencement for so many of us and our families,” Mr. Ziskind posted on X. “All she got was barred from the second ceremony. That’s a joke of a punishment. Her degree should be revoked.”
MIT wasn’t the only university facing an anti-Israel outbreak at graduation. A Harvard Divinity School graduate used her speech to praise Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, a classmate charged with assaulting an Israeli student.
“I center Palestine today not just because of its scale of atrocity, but because of our complicity in it,” she said Thursday at the ceremony as she held a Palestinian flag.
A Harvard Divinity School spokesperson said the speaker deviated from her prepared remarks.
“Staff had no prior knowledge of the revised and given speech,” the spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon. “Neither [Harvard Divinity School] nor Harvard condones the action taken by the students to deviate from the submitted and approved speech. The views and opinions expressed by the speakers during this ceremony are solely those of the individuals and do not reflect the official policy or position of HDS or Harvard University.”
In April, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force on Antisemitism froze $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard after the university refused to accept its proposed reforms, prompting the university to sue.
