Anti-Israel protesters disrupted Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California’s speech Thursday night at Britain’s Oxford Union.
Two students who displayed Palestinian flags as the former Speaker of the House was delivering her speech were removed, according to The Telegraph. The students were not arrested, however, per the report.
Politico journalist Bethany Dawson posted images from the speech showing the protest.
“Security are doing … nothing,” she wrote in one post, later noting that protesters were allowed to remain throughout the speech.
A (silent) protester has interrupted Pelosi https://t.co/2svo2IARyc pic.twitter.com/1Ctw3jEirW
— Bethany Dawson (@bethanymrd) April 25, 2024
Two students escorted out by police after Pelosi finished talking https://t.co/TIrDT2MKLF pic.twitter.com/WQGoWCATnl
— Bethany Dawson (@bethanymrd) April 25, 2024
“The suffering of Gaza must stop,” Pelosi said in her remarks. “We want peace on both sides. Both sides must agree to it.”
Should Nancy Pelosi retire?
During the speech, she also said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has to go,” according to Politico.
Outside the hall where Pelosi spoke, about 250 students protested chanting “Israel is a terrorist state”, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, and “London to Gaza, long live the intifada,” the Telegraph reported.
The outlet reported that the volume on Pelosi’s mic was jacked up to compete with the chanting.
“Warmongers like Nancy Pelosi are not welcome on University campuses. When children are being murdered, and hospitals are being bombed, we will not sit down and be quiet whilst these people are given platforms. We must stand up and take action,” the group Youth Demand, which took credit for the disruption, posted on X.
“Whilst Pelosi was inside, students of the University made their voices heard,” the group posted.
The Oxford Union seemed unperturbed by the protests.
Oxford Union’s “founding principle is that of freedom of speech and the open exchange of ideas,” it said in a statement, according to The Hill.
“In this spirit, we support the right to peaceful protest. There was an incident inside the chamber which was dealt with by security,” the statement said.
The Oxford Student reported that Pelosi slammed Republicans in Congress, saying Democrats wanted aid for Gaza and the student had “no idea how hard it was to get Republicans to vote for that.”
Speaking of Israel’s response to the terrorist attack of Oct. 7, she said “if you could think of a worse way to respond, you couldn’t think of a worse way than what Netanyahu did,” saying his response reached the “fifth level of all this – famine.”
