Harvard University has awarded most of the degrees it withheld from pro-Hamas protesters as punishment for their participating in an unlawful demonstration at Harvard Yard, further feeding an impression that its tough talk about discipline and restoring order was contrived to temper negative publicity prompted by its alleged refusal to address antisemitism on the campus.

According to The Washington Free Beacon, which first reported the story, Harvard conferred degrees to 11 of the 13 protesters whose behavior during the final weeks of the semester prompted several warnings from the university.

Responding to the university’s amnestying him and other protesters, one graduate reviled Harvard on social media anyway, denouncing the institution as cynical and rapacious.

“What does it mean to be conferred a degree from a university that holds millions of investments in illegal occupation, bankrolls the annihilation of Palestinians, and mistreats its students for a political agenda,” Asmer Asrar Safi said in comments quoted by the Free Beacon. “While we know our fellow organizers … will continue to mobilize, please remember that every student, faculty, and staff member at the university has a responsibility to challenge the status quo.”

Harvard later said in statements to the Free Beacon and The Harvard Crimson, the school’s official campus newspaper, that nothing about its decision is amiss.

“Consistent with its May 22 statement, the Harvard Corporation has voted to confer degrees to 11 eligible candidates who have been restored to good standing following the completion of Faculty of Arts and Sciences processes,” a university spokesman said. “The university continues to work to strengthen and improve disciplinary processes, such as the recently announced procedures to enable the work of the University Committee on Rights and Responsibilities to enhance the consistency of investigation and factfinding [sic] processes in cases involving more than one school.”

This latest news follows earlier reporting that Harvard “downgraded” disciplinary sanctions it levied against several pro-Hamas demonstrators who participated in occupying Harvard Yard.

The shocking development likely erased the good will Harvard regained by appearing to embrace an approach to discipline that would deter future unruly behavior as well as the anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hate incidents the protesters perpetrated throughout the school year, which damaged the reputation of the institution and prompted a slew of lawsuits and federal investigations.

For a time the university was stern in discussing its intention to dismantle a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” — a collection of tents in which demonstrators lived and from which they refused to leave unless Harvard agreed to boycott and divest from Israel — protesters had set up on campus, creating an impression that no one would go unpunished.

In a public statement, interim president Alan Garber denounced their actions for forcing the rescheduling of exams and disrupting the academics of students who continued doing their homework and studying for final exams, responsibilities the protesters seemingly abdicated during the demonstrations.

Harvard then began suspending the protesters following their rejection of a deal to leave the encampment, according to The Harvard Crimson. Before then, Garber vowed that any student who continued to occupy the section of campus would be placed on “involuntary leave,” a measure that would have effectively disenrolled the students from school and barred them from campus until a decision to allow them back was rendered.

However, Harvard, as well as the organization responsible for the encampment, Harvard out of Occupied Palestine (HOOP), always maintained that some protesters would be allowed to appeal their punishments, per an agreement — alluded to in its newest statement about the conferring of degrees that were withheld — the two parties reached, but it was not clear that the end result would amount to a victory for the protesters.

HOOP went on to celebrate the revocation of the suspensions on social media and, in addition to suggesting that its members will disrupt the campus again, described themselves as waging an “intifada,” an apparent reference to two prolonged periods of Palestinian terrorism during which hundreds of Israeli Jews were murdered.

“Harvard walks back on probations and reverses suspensions of pro-Palestine students after massive pressure,” the group said. “After sustained student and faculty organizing, Harvard has caved in, showing that the student intifada will always prevail … This reversal is a bare minimum. We call on our community to demand no less than Palestinian liberation from the river to the sea. Grounded in the rights of return and resistance. We will not rest until divestment from the Israeli regime is met.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Harvard University Grants Degrees to Pro-Hamas Protesters, Says Students ‘Restored to Good Standing’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Israeli forces recovered on Wednesday the bodies of five hostages killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on southern Israel and held in Gaza since then, the Israeli military said.

Maya Goren, a 56-year-old kindergarten teacher, was killed during the attack on her kibbutz, Nir Oz, according to Israeli Army Radio, one of the communities worst hit in the deadly attack in southern Israel that triggered the ongoing war in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

The other four hostages were two reserve soldiers and two conscript soldiers killed in combat during the Oct. 7 massacre, the military said. There names were Sergeant Kiril Brodski, 19; Staff Sergeant Tomer Ahimas, 20; Oren Goldin, 33; and Ravid Katz, 51.

“The rescue of the bodies of the late Maya, Kiril, Tomer, Oren, and Ravid is an important and decisive military move that allows their families an important closing of the circle, and eternal rest for the murdered,” the Hostages and Missing Family Forum said in a statement.

Their bodies were retrieved from the area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where Israeli forces launched new raids this week.

The five had been listed among 120 hostages still in Gaza, about a third of whom Israel has declared dead in absentia, based on forensic findings, intelligence, interrogations of captured militants, videos, and testimony of released hostages.

In a speech to the US Congress on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government was actively engaged in intensive efforts to release the remaining hostages which he was confident would succeed.

An Israeli delegation would participate in talks to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release — mediated by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar – next week, an Israeli official said on Wednesday.

Hamas wants a ceasefire agreement to end the war in Gaza, but Netanyahu says the war cannot end before Hamas’ military and governing capabilities are dismantled.

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Negotiations on a ceasefire-for-hostages deal in the Gaza conflict appear to be in their closing stages and US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will discuss remaining gaps on Thursday, a senior US official said on Wednesday.

The official, briefing reporters ahead of their talks, said the remaining obstacles are bridgeable and there will be more meetings aimed at reaching a deal between Israel and Hamas over the next week.

Hamas-led fighters stormed into southern Israel on Oct.7, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 captives, triggering the ongoing war in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Hamas and other terrorists are still holding 120 hostages; Israel believes around a third of them are dead.

Months of stop-and-start talks have failed to produce a deal to gain release of some of the remaining hostages.

The senior US official said both Israel and Hamas still have some issues to resolve but that a deal is close in which a six-week ceasefire would take place in exchange for the release of women, elderly men, and wounded hostages over a 42-day period.

“It’s a very different negotiation now than just a month ago when we had some fundamentally unbridgeable issues,” the official said.

Biden will hold talks with Netanyahu and then later in the day Vice President Kamala Harris will have a separate meeting with the Israeli leader.

Harris has taken over as the presumed Democratic choice for the November presidential election against Republican Donald Trump, after Biden opted not to seek reelection again under pressure from Democrats concerned about his mental acuity.

The senior US official said both Biden and Harris are “completely aligned” on US policy toward Israel and Gaza.

“The Israelis will hear full alignment,” the official said.

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