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Harvard Graduate Union Sees Wave of Resignations Over Hamas Massacre Response, Jewish Student Concerns
Pro-Hamas students rallying at Harvard University. Photo: Reuters/Brian Snyder
Dozens of members of Harvard University’s graduate student union have resigned in protest of its response to the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel and what they described as the union “repeatedly ignoring” concerns voiced by Jewish and Israeli members.
Since Thursday, more than 30 members resigned, according to the Harvard Crimson, the campus newspaper. The members were joined by over 70 other Harvard students who signed on “in solidarity” a letter that circulated social media explaining their decision to leave the union.
In the letter, the students said they were “profoundly disappointed” with the union’s actions since Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that rules Gaza, invaded Israel on Oct. 7, massacred over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped over 240 others as hostages. It was the deadliest single-day attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
Rather than pursue a “shared agenda of solidarity,” the union has “repeatedly ignored and derided the concerns of many of its Jewish and Israeli members,” according to the letter. “Despite becoming increasingly vocal on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, [the union] has at no point acknowledged, let alone condemned, the horrific attacks on Israeli civilians on and since Oct. 7. This refusal to extend empathy to Israeli and Jewish students at a time of escalating antisemitism is a shameful failure of solidarity.”
The students also cited the body’s delay in issuing a statement condemning antisemitism and Nov. 10 endorsement of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward the Jewish state’s eventual elimination. Beyond endorsing the BDS movement on Nov. 10, the union also voted to sign a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza — a move that critics argue would allow Hamas terrorists to regroup to target Israel.
“Jewish and Israeli members and allies seeking to raise concerns in union meetings about campus antisemitism have been dismissed as ‘privileged,’ told they had ‘nothing at stake, unlike those students with family members now under attack,’ and accused of wielding ‘white supremacist power’ and being ‘complicit in genocide,’” the letter read.
The students noted that the graduate union recently signed a letter that referred to Israel as “the murderous Israeli regime” and accusing it of “ongoing genocide.”
Amid such hostility, the resigning students wrote, they have tried to “engage in good faith” but have reached their limit.
“For the last month we have engaged in good faith,” the letter continued. “At this point, however, it has become abundantly clear that HGSU-UAW [Harvard’s graduate student union] has no interest in supporting the safety and wellbeing of all students impact by the conflict. We are therefore left with no choice but to announce our resignation from the union.”
The graduate union is affiliated with the United Auto Workers labor union (UAW), which represents about 400,000 members including some graduate students and academic workers.
In a statement to the Harvard Crimson, HGSU-UAW Trustee Max Ehrenfreund responded to the resignations.
“These resignations are not merely symbolic, but materially limit the union’s capacity to advocate for its workers,” Ehrenfreund said. “For that reason, we will be reaching out to all of the resigning members to hear from them individually to understand how the union can better serve them and to figure out what we might be able to do to convince them to sign a card again.”
The union’s unofficial “BDS caucus” recently issued a statement deriding efforts to get the union to issue a more thorough statement condemning antisemitism, saying it “feeds into a right-wing narrative that paints the recent wave of protests and consciousness-building in the Palestinian struggle as ‘incidents of incitement and calls for violence against Jewish and Israeli students.’”
Harvard has been a hub of controversy since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, with the school coming under fire for what Jewish and pro-Israel voices have described as allowing antisemitism and anti-Israel hatred to proliferate on campus since Oct. 7.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Harvard Graduate Union Sees Wave of Resignations Over Hamas Massacre Response, Jewish Student Concerns first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.