Madeleine Albright Berkeley Protest (2000)

Wed May 10, 2000

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Image: Protestors decrying Madeleine Albright’s role in maintaining U.S. sanctions against Iraq were ejected from UC Berkeley’s graduation ceremony in May 2000. AP Photo by Ben Margot [sfgate.com]

On this day in 2000, activists disrupted the commencement speech of then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in protest of U.S. sanctions against Iraq, leading Albright to flee the building after she finished speaking.

In a recent interview, Albright had stated that the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children predicted to die from the policy was “worth it” to advance U.S. policy in the region.

Palestinian Fadia Rafeedie was initially scheduled to speak before Albright, however Albright’s speech was moved first and she immediately left the building following her speech.

When it was Rafeedie’s time to speak, she put aside her prepared remarks and spoke out against U.S. policy towards Iraq and the devastation it was causing on the population there. She ended her speech by saying this:

“I want to end my speech with a slogan that hangs over my bed in Arabic. It says, ‘La tastaw Hishu tareeq el-Haq, min qilit es-sa’ireen fihi’ and that translates into, ‘Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it.’ I think our future is going to be the future of truth, and we’re going to walk on that path, and we’re going to fill it with travelers. Thank you very much.”

  • birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    2·
    7 days ago

    Interestingly, Madeleine Albright (d. 2022) had a talk during the midterms, in where she talked with her successor, lamenting the loss of norms and values during the Trump cabinet. One illness does not justify another; it remains thus to be seen, whether running away from responsibilities may be counted as a virtue.