Actress Susan Sarandon was filmed leading anti-Israel protesters in a chant near Columbia University the day after over a hundred student activists were arrested on campus.
In a video that went viral on social media, Sarandon chanted while hordes of protestors parroted back her words.
Sarandon wore glasses and red sleeved letterman’s jacket as she encouraged student protesters to keep demonstrating, despite opposition from the Ivy League school.
The “Witches of Eastwick” star told the crowd “That it is very important to have their voices heard,” which they repeated back to her like an oath.
BREAKING: Actress @SusanSarandon has joined the Palestine solidarity activists rallying outside of Columbia University gates to share her message of solidarity with the students. pic.twitter.com/oxTqkLARjx
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) April 19, 2024
She also took a shot at Columbia with the line: “It is their right in a democracy, especially in a place of education, and supposedly higher thoughts. To be attacked with racism and intolerance is not acceptable.”
“There are many, many people who stand with you. You must know that you inspire so many people,” Sarandon said to members of Columbia University’s Apartheid Divest organization.
Hordes of student activists stubbornly remained in tents on the campus lawn on Friday, a day after the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” was cleared out by NYPD and more than a hundred students were arrested.
“People who are afraid, people who are old and afraid, are looking to you and your voices, and your organization, and your tenacity, and your kindness to make a difference in the situation,” the actress told the college kids.
“You give me hope, to me and so many people, and in the end, the truth will win,” she concluded.
The five-time Academy Award winning actress has been active at anti-Israel protests since getting canceled by Hollywood last Fall.
Sarandon was dropped by her talent agency UTA, after making controversial comments while speaking at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York City in November.
“There are a lot of people that are afraid, that are afraid of being Jewish at this time,” she told the crowd.
“And [they] are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country, so often subjected to violence,” Sarandon said antisemiticly added.
The “Thema & Louise” star doubled down in February, whens she joined Squad member, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, (D-Mich) on Capitol Hill for left-wing, all women activist group CODEPINK’s “advocacy day.”
CODEPINK was in Washington, D.C., to protest the Senate’s approval of a foreign aid package that allocated $14.1 billion towards Israel’s war against Hamas.
“As a mother & grandmother, I can’t bear watching the ongoing suffering of the mothers in Gaza, especially knowing that we in the US are paying for the weapons that are killing them and their families,” Sarandon commented at the time.
“I say to Congress: stop supporting this genocide, call for a permanent ceasefire and the resuming of humanitarian aid,” she demanded.
"We have to have a permanent ceasefire and save the lives of all those people that are now and save the lives of all those people that are now just being shot at like fish in a barrel."
– @SusanSarandon in Congress today calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/VwSvxvHxdU— CODEPINK (@codepink) February 15, 2024
On Friday, Talib spoke out about Barnard College’s “appalling” suspension of fellow Squad member Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s daughter, who helped organize the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” and was one of the over 100 students arrested on Thursday.
“From UM to Vanderbilt to USC to Columbia, students across our country are being retaliated against for using their constitutional rights to protest genocide. It’s appalling,” Tlaib commented on 21-year-old Isra Hirsi’s post that announced she was one of three activists suspended for protesting.
Squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) said that she’s “enormously proud” of her daughter for getting arrested.
“Stepping up to change what you can’t tolerate is why we as a country have the right to speech, assembly, and petition enshrined in our constitution,” the Minnesota congresswoman wrote.
Fellow Squad member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also chimed in on Omar’s daughter’s suspension.
According to a statement from the school, students were cautioned by senior staff at that they had “set up an unauthorized encampment” and would face sanctions if they did not leave.
“How does a student with no disciplinary record suddenly get to a suspension less than 24 hours after a nonviolent protest? What merits asymmetric crackdowns on Palestinian human rights protests,” Ocasio-Cortez complained.