Wellesley College, the alma school of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (1969), welcomed her back recently. However, the hostility was overwhelming.
The Hillary Rodham Clinton Center for Citizenship, Leadership, and Democracy is a collegiate facility named after Clinton. She came to the school to participate in a women-led democracy summit and to revel in the honor.
During a one-day summit on Saturday, April 6, Wellesley College announced that Hillary Rodham Clinton, an alumna of the college, would be in town to inaugurate the Hillary Rodham Clinton Center for Citizenship, Leadership, and Democracy. Renewing Democracy: Women Leading the Way was the title of the conference. The College issued a press statement the day of the event, but otherwise kept publicity to a minimum since it was closed to the general public.
There was a lineup of pro-Palestine demonstrators waiting to confront Clinton and the other guests. Placards claiming that Clinton had “blood on her hands” and calling her Wellesley’s most cherished war criminal were disseminated on campus by students.
According to a report, the general response on Saturday was far more divided. Protesters seemed to be responding to Clinton’s recent remarks against a cease-fire deal in the Israel-Hamas war with signs set up during the demonstrations. As the summit delegates went inside the Diana Chapman Walsh Alumnae Hall, protesters began chanting. To hide their identities, the majority of protesters wore paper masks. Some wore black-and-white kaffiyehs, which have come to represent the pro-Palestinian cause.
During the discussion, protesters again interrupted Clinton; one of them yelled out that Clinton was apathetic about the Palestinians’ atrocities.
Clinton told the protester she would be delighted to meet with the individual afterward, as she was in the middle of a discussion. The woman was led out of the hall by security.
A report reveals that anti-Semitism is thriving at Wellesley, as it is on other American campuses. The head of the residence hall wrote an email to all students in weeks that followed after the terrorist strikes on October 7 in which he blamed Israel for the murder of Jewish citizens by Hamas terrorists.