'What a disgrace': MIT student launches anti-Israel rant during math lecture, but viewers are shocked by professor's reaction

A video of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student interrupting a mathematics lecture so that he can launch a rant against Israel and the United States has gone viral. What shocks viewers the most is the reaction of the MIT professor.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman shared the eye-opening video of the MIT math lecture from Thursday morning on the X social media platform.

The video shows a student interrupting a math lesson at MIT. The professor actually allows the student to disrupt the class for everyone else with an anti-Israel diatribe.

The student stands near where the professor is explaining a math problem.

The professor addressed the disturbance by politely asking the student if he could wait until he was done solving the mathematics problem.

The professor asked the disruptor, "Can I just finish this line?"

Once the professor finishes the mathematics problem, he walks away from the blackboard, and then the pro-Palestinian student goes on an anti-Israel tirade.

"As you witness an ongoing genocide of Gaza in MIT silence – I'm joining hundreds of students city-wide walking out of class," the student begins. "Because we stand for the liberation of Palestine against active genocide that is perpetuated by MIT, Israel, and the United States.”

The student then unfurls a Palestinian flag and leads a few fellow students with chants of "Free, free Palestine!"

"This is the state of learning and ‘free speech’ at our top universities. It would not be happening without a failure leadership at MIT," Ackman wrote. "Imagine being a student who borrowed $250k to attend MIT or a professor who is trying to do research in this environment."

At the time of publication, the viral video had more than 17 million views in a little over a day.

Online commentators were in disbelief of how the professor handled the "Free Palestine" interruption during the lecture about math.

Cultural critic James Lindsay: "Stop hiring college graduates. Can you imagine hiring people who were 'professionally' trained in an environment like this? What a s**tshow. Save yourself the trouble. Stop hiring college graduates."

College professor Wilfred Reilly: "To me, the most striking contrast here is between the teacher clearly outlining an important equation...and the radical student babbling out low-IQ partisan nonsense. We often hear that the 2nd is more important, but this is facially false."

Conservative firebrand Ann Coulter: "Not saying we should criminalize the donation of money to woke colleges and universities, that would be extreme. But we need a moratorium of several hundred years."

Political scientist Keith Whittington: "Universities should have and enforce a zero tolerance policy for classroom disruptions. Education is the core mission of the university, and campus free expression policies should be designed to secure that mission."

Professor Nicholas A. Christakis: "Regardless of the message, interrupting class to protest or to express political opinions is against the rules at most universities -- for good reason."

Journalist Rita Panahi: "They not only tolerate this buffoonery, they encourage it."

Law enforcement analyst James A. Gagliano: "We’ve allowed adolescent clowns — most who have ZERO concept of history or geopolitics — to hijack learning environments. Instead of removing the disruptive student; and suspending him, the professor has to patiently allow him to be an *activist in class. What an absolute disgrace."

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