Harvard Students’ Pro-Palestinian Letter Sparks Backlash from Alumni
Image Source: Reuters
The Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee sent out a letter stating that the students “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” The letter had 33 student groups as co-signers.
The Palestinian section of Gaza, which is under the control of the Islamist militant Hamas movement, charged Israel on Saturday in the most devastating breach of the nation’s defenses ever seen since the war that started in 1973. In retaliation, Israel bombarded Gaza with airstrikes. Due to this ongoing brutality, hundreds of innocents in Israel and Gaza have lost their lives.
The association of student groups who co-signed the letter made a statement that “the apartheid regime (Israel) is the only one to blame.” The co-signers include Muslim and Palestinian support groups, as well as others such as Harvard Jews for Liberation and the African American Resistance Organization.
Unfortunately, it could not be identified how many of the students were in support of the letter. On Monday, Claudine Gay, Harvard President, and the higher authorities, including 15 deans, provided a statement stating that they were “heartbroken by the death and destruction unleashed by the attack by Hamas that targeted citizens in Israel this weekend.” Although the statement steered clear of giving references to the student letter or the response to it.
Harvard is known to be the most prestigious university in U.S. politics, which gave the U.S. eight former presidents, and out of nine, four present Supreme Court Justices.
The present-day Harvard management’s failure to respond to the letter was heavily criticized by Lawrence Summers, the discharged Harvard President and the former United States Secretary of the Treasury under former President Bill Clinton, as well as a Harvard graduate himself. On the social media platform X, he wrote, “The silence from Harvard’s leadership… has allowed Harvard to appear at best neutral towards acts of terror against the Jewish state of Israel,” and that he was “sickened” by the non-response.
A Republican U.S. Representative from New York and a Harvard graduate, Elise Stefanik, said that the statement was “abhorrent and heinous” to excuse the “slaughter of innocent women and children.”
Team Profile
- News Writer
- Khushboo Haq is a First year student of M.A. in political science and international relations at Gautam Buddha University. She wants to leverage her strong writing skills, creativity, and expertise in various niches to deliver high-quality, and engaging, content for News Media.
Latest entries
News1 November 2023Hurricane Leaves 100 People Dead or Missing in Mexico; Concerns About Food and Water Continue
News1 November 2023Conflict has uprooted a record 6.9 Million People in Congo – IOM
News1 November 2023King Charles of Britain Arrives in Kenya, A country with a “Painful” Colonial Past
News31 October 2023‘Outstanding’ Leader Li Keqiang Will be Cremated by China on Thursday
