Over a hundred Harvard students and affiliates participated in silent, non-disruptive study-in at Widener library, and an All out for Gaza protest at Massachusetts Hall, December 10. Photo: Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee
From a reader:
On Sunday, December 10, at Harvard University, the Students for Justice in Palestine—a group of Jews and Palestinians that has formally been banned at Harvard—put out the call for a demonstration against the escalating attacks on pro-Palestinian people at Harvard. This protest took place while the Harvard Corporation and the Harvard Board of Overseers—the two highest governing bodies of Harvard University—were meeting to determine the fate of Harvard President Claudine Gay. This was following Gay's testimony in a congressional hearing on “anti-Semitism” on college campuses a few days before. At the protest, 150 rowdy Harvard students demonstrated in Harvard Yard to denounce the genocide in Gaza and the full-court press of censorship going on at Harvard and other campuses.
The determination of the students was particularly evident. This rally occurred in the midst of ongoing and often threatening efforts to suppress any campus opposition to the genocidal acts of the Zionists. It took place in the middle of final exams and a pouring rainstorm. Speakers denounced Harvard's affiliations with Israel and condemned former Harvard graduates such as Antony Blinken (whose step-father was a Holocaust survivor) as war criminals. One shared what his family is going through living in Gaza, another student spoke to the history of the genocide of the Kurdish people and how that represented the same struggle the Palestinians are waging for recognition and liberation.
Representatives from several campus groups spoke about the unconscionable crimes being committed by Israel under the pretext/lie of self-defense. They demanded an immediate and permanent cease-fire. Three clinicians from Health Care Workers for Palestine spoke, including a Palestinian pediatrician working at Harvard. A revcom, whose Jewish family survived the Holocaust and who is also a member of the Health Care Workers for Palestine, spoke. The rally ended with a poignant and moving taped message from a doctor in Gaza celebrating what the students at Harvard are doing.
