The New Dark Age

Friday, 29 May 2026 — Al Mayadeen English

Lebanese graduate Leen Ezzeddine delivered a powerful speech at Harvard Medical School’s 2026 graduation ceremony, reflecting on war, displacement, and the unequal realities shaping access to education and medicine.

She recalled learning medicine in the US while a US missile destroyed her family home in southern Lebanon, contrasting her experience with that of Palestinian and Lebanese medical students forced to study under drones and amid bombed hospitals.

“We were told to stay silent as Gaza unfolded before us,” she said, accusing universities of promoting principles such as health equity and human rights only when they are “politically convenient.”