Harvard is on the wrong side of history, again

We learn as early as middle school that history is written by the bullies. As the world witnesses Israel’s ongoing assault that has killed over 14,000 Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, Israeli officials have denied, downplayed, and celebrated this massacre. America continues to affirm its friend’s “obvious” efforts to avoid harming civilians. Harvard University’s President has not once mentioned the words ‘Palestinian’ or ‘Palestine’ since October 7. Mayor Bloomberg is right on one thing–there is a crisis in higher education.

It is impossible to ignore Israel’s painful parallels to the American playbook of the Vietnam War, including the indiscriminate killing of over 2 million Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian civilians and the illegal use of white phosphorus in dense civilian areas then and now. The Harvard Law International Human Rights Clinic, United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B’Tselem, one of Israel’s most respected rights groups, have described Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as apartheid, a crime classically synonymous with 20th-century South Africa.

Harvard has silenced and stood against students protesting against these gross instances of human rights abuses and massacres before. It took over a decade of constant pressure from the student body for Harvard to only partially divest from apartheid South Africa in the late 1980s. On April 10, 1969, several hundreds occupied University Hall in peaceful protest of on-campus recruitment for the Vietnam War. Harvard responded by calling in 400 armed police officers who beat and arrested hundreds of demonstrating students.

Instead of learning from past missteps, Harvard is now dismissing genocidal action in Gaza, made more egregious by a blatant bias because it is politically expedient to do so. While appropriately swift to condemn the October 7 attack by Hamas, Harvard has not condemned the far deadlier violence being committed by Israel’s military, effectively condoning the slaughter of Palestinians. Equally painful is Harvard Medical School’s summary of attacks on hospitals, ambulances, public health infrastructure, and medical workers (war crimes per international law) as “abhorrent consequences of war.”

Harvard’s most recent statement included unequivocal condemnation of the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” as antisemitic speech, making it clear administrators did not consult with Jewish communities critical of Israel, let alone any other groups supporting Palestinian freedom. The slogan, coined by a nonviolent Palestinian liberation movement in the 1960s, demands for Palestinians to be free from oppression. While the phrase was later co-opted by both the Israeli Likud Party and Hamas and is sometimes used with anti-Palestinian and antisemitic intent, respectively, it is fundamentally a call for liberty and equality for all, including Jews, living in the region. And yet, it is weaponized to make a scapegoat of advocates for Palestinian rights while tacitly endorsing Israel’s legacy of ethnic cleansing.

Harvard is not just failing to speak out against Israel’s latest continuation of more than 50 years of military occupation and 16 years of siege of Gaza–but it is standing directly against those pushing for an end to violence. Its 1,205-word statement rightfully condemning antisemitism failed to acknowledge Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, students of color, and even Jewish students targeted for Palestinian rights advocacy. Over 100 Harvard faculty members deplored the “dangerously one-sided” rhetoric from the administration, divulging that this message came after calls from within to de-recognize the Palestinian Solidarity Committee, departures, and threats from high-profile donors.

A doxxing truck funded by a prominent Harvard donor continues to circle campus displaying names, faces, and addresses of students vocal for freedom for Palestinians. Harvard has also evicted and cooperated with an FBI investigation into a Black student serving as security marshall at a peaceful die-in who was protecting fellow protesters from being recorded and stepped on by an instigator. Harvard succumbed to right-wing media influence despite bonafide evidence, once again calling into question university interests.

Harvard’s suppression of Palestinian rights advocacy is a decades-long tradition. Since the early 2000s, students have called for divestment of its $194 million in companies with ties to illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine. Milbank rescinded funding from Harvard Law School’s student events after the hosting of a forum titled “The Palestine Exception to Free Speech: A Movement Under Attack.” This January, Harvard faced pushback from the ACLU after attempting to revoke ex-Human Rights Watch Ken Roth’s fellowship for his criticism of Israeli policy.

Harvard’s President has assured its commitment “extends even to views that any of us find objectionable, even outrageous. We do not punish or sanction people for expressing such views.” This commitment clearly does not extend to views supporting Palestinian freedom. And yet, Harvard is hardly unique in its hypocrisy. MIT threatened students with suspension for engaging in a sit-in. Twenty Brown University Jewish students were arrested for a sit-in and threatened with a year in prison. Columbia University’s suspension of both Palestinian and Jewish student groups calling for an end to Israel’s crimes against Palestinians reveals that it is not student safety but support of Israeli policy that is protected on campuses.

It is time to hold these “prestigious” universities accountable for their actions and their passivity–for once again punishing students advocating for human rights and failing to condemn atrocities perpetrated by the U.S. and its allies–they may do well to consider their legacies lest history repeats itself in more ways than one.