Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was delivering an address Thursday at the Oxford Union when pro-Palestinian protestors interrupted the speech.
Video from the address shows a student walking to the podium where Pelosi was and holding a Palestinian flag in front of her. The protester stood there silently while Pelosi continued her speech and security approached.
Outside the building, around 250 protesters chanted “free Palestine” and “end the genocide,” video highlighted by Mediaite showed.
The group was led by Youth Demand, which had condemned Pelosi’s Benazir Bhutto Memorial Lecture at the Oxford Union.
“Warmongers like Nancy Pelosi are not welcome on University campuses,” the group posted online. “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, because we aren’t f‑‑‑ing around anymore.”
Oxford Union’s “founding principle is that of freedom of speech and the open exchange of ideas,” the organization told The Hill in a statement.
“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.
Pelosi had no further comment on the disruption.
Benazir Bhutto served as the prime minister of Pakistan in the late 1980s and again in the mid-1990s. The first woman to serve as prime minister of a Muslim nation, Bhutto was assassinated in 2007 when a gunman opened fire and detonated a suicide bomb after a political rally. The Oxford Union hosts a memorial lecture in Bhutto’s honor annually.
Pro-Palestinian gatherings have erupted across college campuses in the United States this week. Arrests have been made at Columbia University and University of Texas at Austin, among other campuses, as pro-Palestinians sit-ins continue and schools grapple with free expression while maintaining campus order and addressing accusations of antisemitism.