Esra Tekin
February 10, 2024•Update: February 10, 2024
ISTANBUL
Pro-Palestinian protesters on Friday interrupted former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's speech at the Columbia University, and called her a “war criminal.”
"Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, you are a war criminal! The people of Libya, the people of Iraq, the people of Syria, the people of Yemen, the people of Palestine as well as the people of America will never forgive you,” a man shouted during her address, according to videos circulating on social media.
While the protester was removed from the lecture hall, he continued to chant: “Free, free Palestine” and “You will burn."
The ex-first lady then attempted to commence her speech on sexual violence related to conflicts, saying: "Yelling doesn’t solve the problem," only to be disrupted by another protester.
However, she attempted to speak above the protester's disruption, but eventually abandoned her efforts as more individuals joined in.
“OK, we’re going to stop a minute. You know what, why don’t all of you just interrupt me so that you won’t be interrupting our panelists so that we don’t have this kind of disruption when we have people who are real experts in this area,” she said.
“People are free to protest, but they are not free to disrupt events or classes and that is going to be the standards that we follow here and going forward,” she added.
Clinton also faced a similar confrontation in October. A crowd member interrupted a panel discussion at the same university, trying to get her to denounce US President Joe Biden's call for additional funding for Ukraine and Israel.
