Several graduates of Columbia University on Wednesday shredded and burned their diplomas in a show of support for Palestine.

Video shared on X by Freedom News shows the alumni chanting “free, free Palestine” while destroying their diplomas. At least one figure in the video appears to be wearing Columbia University graduation regalia along with a N95face mask and a keffiyeh scarf.

Amid the smoldering diplomas appears to be piece of cardboard reading “free Mahmoud Khalil,” in reference to the Columbia University student who is being held in an immigration detention center after being apprehended on campus by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents.

Later in the clip, uniformed officers step in to trample the blaze. The video then cuts to an altercation between officers and several individuals wearing keffiyehs who are on opposite sides of a metal barrier.

Cornell University graduate Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, shared a video on X of police responding to the scene and condemned those involved.

“Stampede through campus, disrupt ceremonies, face the consequences,” he wrote. “The message is clear: cause chaos, get cuffed.”

The scene comes after a turbulent year at Columbia which saw former interim President Katrina Armstrong step down. Students booed the school’s new interim President Claire Shipman during a campus graduation ceremony Tuesday. At one point, the boos drowned out her speech.

“We firmly believe that our international students have the same rights to freedom of speech as everyone else and they should not be targeted by the government for exercising that right,” Shipman, the former TV journalist, said in her speech. “Let me also say that I know many in our community today are mourning the absence of our graduate Mahmoud Khalil.”

One student who allegedly helped lead pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia in 2023, Mohsen Mahdawi, graduated from the school on Monday with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. His graduation came less than three weeks after he was released from immigration custody. Mahdawi was detained at what he was told was a U.S. citizenship interview.

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