Harvard students having second thoughts about siding with Hamas

Earlier this week a collection of 30-some progressive groups at Harvard signed a letter saying Israel was “entirely responsible” for Hamas’ attacks. But there has also been some substantial pushback on those groups since then.

large number of harvard student organizations blaming israel solely for hamas terrorist attacks killing 700 civilians.

can’t imagine who would want to identify with such a group. harvard parents—talk to your educated kids about this. pic.twitter.com/q9StJ3MJpf

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) October 8, 2023

Some people pointed out the glaring double standard. Harvard is a place where microaggressions are very serious but siding with terrorist murderers, not so much.

I can’t count how many times I was lectured about microaggressions at Harvard. Those same people are now on their timelines glorifying Hamas for deadly, inhumane, terroristic aggression. The double standard is baffling.

— Carine Hajjar (@carinehajjar2) October 10, 2023

There have also been serious consequences for at least one student at another law school who lost a job she had lined up with a corporate law firm because of a similar statement. And then yesterday a large group of professors at Harvard came out with their own letter which correctly concluded the students were condoning the mass murder of civilians.

In the context of the unfolding events, this statement can be seen as nothing less than condoning the mass murder of civilians based only on their nationality. We’ve heard reports of even worse instances, with Harvard students celebrating the “victory” or “resistance” on social media…

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a long and complex history. We hold varying opinions, but none of us endorses all of Israel’s past actions. However, the events of this week are not complicated. Sometimes there is such a thing as evil, and it is incumbent upon educators and leaders to call it out, as they have with school shootings and terrorist attacks. It is imperative that our academic leadership, whose good faith we do not doubt, state this clearly and unequivocally. Further, while individuals’ free speech should be protected, our leaders should make it clear that our community rejects any statements that excuse terrorist acts.

The pressure has apparently gotten to some of the students and who groups who, starting yesterday were trying to disassociate themselves from the letter. The Harvard Undergraduate Nepali Student Association said yesterday that it regretted co-signing the statement and announced it would be retracting the group’s signature from the statement.

The law students at Harvard are beginning to really sweat the fact that they might get fired from their first-year associate jobs helping Dow Chemical cover up pesticide spills in small town reservoirs, simply because they supported a terrorist organization in law school pic.twitter.com/P6IfkHqi1i

— Chris Bakke (@ChrisJBakke) October 11, 2023

A Harvard Law students also announced she had resigned from the board of one of the groups that signed the statement. She called it “egregious” and claimed she hadn’t seen it before someone in the group signed on. She says she also kept another group from signing.

I prevented another student group I remain on the board of from signing on when I saw the statement. The statement is not representative of my values and my heart is with those impacted 💔

— Danielle Mikaelian 🇦🇲 (@DanniDKM) October 10, 2023

I also want to make it clear that I know firsthand some of my fellow students are in this situation too. I wasn’t the only board member who stepped down today.

— Danielle Mikaelian 🇦🇲 (@DanniDKM) October 11, 2023

I obviously don’t know from the outside if this is accurate or what the motive is but I think students deserve some benefit of the doubt when they make an effort to make it clear they do not support the statement. A friend and fellow student also claimed groups signed on to the statement without asking members or giving them a chance to read what it said.

I’m a @Harvard_Law student. So I know many members had no say in whether their orgs signed either letter. Many weren’t even notified that their orgs were considering doing so. No need for this level of harassment. https://t.co/m0VkTmAUvk

— Mohini Tangri (@MohiniTangri) October 11, 2023

A number of people pointed out that reading before you sign something seems like a pretty basic standard for Harvard Law students. Tangri suggested this incident has been a “wakeup call” for some student groups at Harvard.

From what I’ve seen this is a wakeup call for a lot of members of student groups. Policies around signing letters will likely change or further develop as a result.

— Mohini Tangri (@MohiniTangri) October 11, 2023

Anyway, even if some of these students were dragged into this without their knowledge, the whole thing went public Sunday night. It’s Wednesday and by now they should have found out what they were associated with and said something about it by now. Simply put, if you don’t think the mass murder of 1,200 Jews by Hamas is Israel’s fault then you need to say so. Anyone who can’t manage that can be assumed to be in agreement.