Harvard Student Groups Face Intense Backlash for Statement Calling Israel ‘Entirely Responsible’ for Hamas Attack
Members of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee interrupted speeches and held signs in a demonstration at Convocation in September. Members of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee interrupted speeches and held signs in a demonstration at Convocation in September. By Frank S. Zhou By J. Sellers Hill and Nia L. Orakwue, Crimson Staff Writers October 10, 2023 Updated: October 10, 2023, at 5:15 p.m. Harvard student groups drew intense campus and national backlash over the weekend for signing onto a statement that they “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” in the wake of a deadly invasion of Israel by the Islamist militant group Hamas.
Authored by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and originally co-signed by 33 other Harvard student organizations Saturday, the statement came under fire from federal lawmakers, University professors, and other students. The statement was initially released on the PSC’s Instagram page, which was later temporarily suspended by Meta, according to the group. The account was back online as of Monday evening. “Today’s events did not occur in a vacuum,” the statement reads. “For the last two decades, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison. Israeli officials promise to ‘open the gates of hell,’ and the massacres in Gaza have already commenced.”
“In the coming days, Palestinians will be forced to bear the full brunt of Israel’s violence. The apartheid regime is the only one to blame,” it continues. The PSC’s statement quickly received widespread condemnation, including from professors and politicians who took to social media to rebuke what they said was an attempt to justify Hamas’ attack. Harvard Computer Science professor Boaz Barak called on the University to remove the organizations’ school affiliations. “I have a lot of criticisms of Israeli policies, but everyone who signed this statement is condoning terrorism, rape, and murder,” Barak wrote on the social media platform X.
Former University President Lawrence H. Summers called the joint statement “morally unconscionable” in a post on X. “In nearly 50 years of @Harvard affiliation, I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today,” he wrote.
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/10/10/psc-statement-backlash/
Members of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee interrupted speeches and held signs in a demonstration at Convocation in September. Members of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee interrupted speeches and held signs in a demonstration at Convocation in September. By Frank S. Zhou By J. Sellers Hill and Nia L. Orakwue, Crimson Staff Writers October 10, 2023 Updated: October 10, 2023, at 5:15 p.m. Harvard student groups drew intense campus and national backlash over the weekend for signing onto a statement that they “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” in the wake of a deadly invasion of Israel by the Islamist militant group Hamas.
Authored by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and originally co-signed by 33 other Harvard student organizations Saturday, the statement came under fire from federal lawmakers, University professors, and other students. The statement was initially released on the PSC’s Instagram page, which was later temporarily suspended by Meta, according to the group. The account was back online as of Monday evening. “Today’s events did not occur in a vacuum,” the statement reads. “For the last two decades, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison. Israeli officials promise to ‘open the gates of hell,’ and the massacres in Gaza have already commenced.”
“In the coming days, Palestinians will be forced to bear the full brunt of Israel’s violence. The apartheid regime is the only one to blame,” it continues. The PSC’s statement quickly received widespread condemnation, including from professors and politicians who took to social media to rebuke what they said was an attempt to justify Hamas’ attack. Harvard Computer Science professor Boaz Barak called on the University to remove the organizations’ school affiliations. “I have a lot of criticisms of Israeli policies, but everyone who signed this statement is condoning terrorism, rape, and murder,” Barak wrote on the social media platform X.
Former University President Lawrence H. Summers called the joint statement “morally unconscionable” in a post on X. “In nearly 50 years of @Harvard affiliation, I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today,” he wrote.
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/10/10/psc-statement-backlash/