Video Shows MIT Student Protester Chanting ‘Free Palestine’ Interrupting Professor’s Math Lecture: ‘Can I Just Finish This Line?’

A viral video that surfaced this week shows an MIT student interrupting a math lecture to talk about Palestinians amid ongoing pro-Palestinian activism that has recently erupted across college campuses in the U.S.

The video posted Friday on X, formerly Twitter, by hedge fund manager Bill Ackman showed a student standing in front of the lecture hall for a few moments, ready to address the crowd, as a lecturer wrote on the board. 

“I am just going to finish this line, can I just finish this line?” the lecturer said to the student, indicating that he wanted to explain the math problem before the student spoke. 

The professor then concluded his lecture and stepped away, giving the student the chance to speak. 

The student then announced that he will be joining “hundreds of students city-wide walking out of class” in protest against the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. 

 “As you witness an ongoing genocide of Gaza in MIT silence - I'm joining hundreds of students city-wide walking out of class. We stand for the liberation of Palestine against active genocide that is perpetuated by MIT, Israel and the United States,” the student told his classmates, according to the video posted by Ackman, which gained over 18 million views.

The student then picked up the Palestinian flag and waved it, chanting “Free Palestine” as others in the lecture hall chanted along. 

It is not known when the incident happened. While Ackman initially said the incident occurred Friday morning, another poster pointed out that MIT does not hold classes on Fridays. Ackman then amended his statement, saying it occurred on Wednesday.

The incident comes amid ongoing student protests across multiple campuses nationwide, including in top U.S. universities such Harvard, MIT, and Columbia, centering around the Israel-Hamas war.

Israel launched an air and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip in response to the Oct. 7 attacks by the terror group Hamas, who killed over 1,200 Israelis and took some 200 hostages. 

In its retaliatory response aiming to eradicate Hamas, Israel responded with airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, which is home to over 2 million people.

 Over 11,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza since, including more than 4,000 children, according to the Gaza health ministry, and thousands were displaced from the north of the Strip to the south. 

Additionally, more than 100 UN workers were confirmed killed over the course of one month, according to Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner general of UNRWA.