As members of the Harvard community, we stand by the State of Israel in its right to self-defense and by the right of the Jewish people to self-determination. We acknowledge that even across our community, there is a wide range of views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we stand by the importance of civil discourse. This includes voicing concerns or grievances against Israeli government policy, as well as differentiating between legitimate criticism of a country’s government and questioning that country’s right to exist.
We condemn, in the strongest of terms, the indiscriminate firing of rockets by Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, at Palestinian and Israeli civilians. We also stand against Hamas in its calls to destroy the State of Israel and exterminate the Jewish people, as well as its use of Palestinian civilians as human shields for its militants.
We are tremendously saddened by the events of the last two weeks, starting with the tragic loss of innocent Israeli and Palestinian life, followed by a frightening spike in reported antisemitic attacks across the country and the globe, including in cities such as New York and Los Angeles. Jews have been harassed while grocery shopping and instructed to stay in their homes over the Jewish Sabbath for fear of antisemitic attacks. Even at Harvard, students have been disturbed by posts on social media cheering on the burning of Israeli flags and dismissing student fears about antisemitism.
We are also disheartened by the rise in anti-Israel sentiment and in activism across the University and the greater Cambridge area that seeks to delegitimize the existence of the State of Israel and the right of the Jewish people to self-determination, not least through the libelous application of terms such as “apartheid,” “white supremacy,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “colonialism.” By extension, it pains us to see a rise in support among students and faculty for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, whose founder Omar Barghouti has made statements such as "[Jews] are not a people'' and has opposed “a Jewish state in Palestine in any shape or form.”
When we see the State of Israel – the homeland of the Jewish people and the world’s only Jewish state – being demonized, delegitimized, or held to a standard to which no other country is held, we recognize and name this as antisemitism. We also recognize with heavy hearts that such declarations by the BDS movement and other opponents of Israel will inevitably be followed by violent antisemitic attacks against Jews.
We hope for a solution to this conflict that will support self-determination for both Palestinians and Israelis, and we pray for a day when all people – Israeli, Palestinian, and otherwise – can live in peace and dignity.
-The Harvard Israel Initiative
See the full list of signatories here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vDwkam6t3MUUqOiKQpLiuK0UD250B9ooKTPToz8F9Js/edit?usp=sharing*Note: this letter will be published sometime this week, and current signatories will be listed as they come in.
