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Harvard Hillel Decries ‘Terrifying’ Anti-Zionist Protest That Disrupted Classes
Pro-Hamas students rallying at Harvard University. Photo: Reuters/Brian Snyder
Harvard University’s Hillel chapter has called on the school’s administration to hold accountable those involved in a “terrifying” anti-Zionist demonstration in which activists stormed the campus calling for the destruction of Israel.
On Wednesday, Harvard classes were disrupted by a coordinated protest of demonstrators who used bullhorns to blast calls to “globalize the intifada,” a term used to describe violent Palestinian uprisings against Israel, as well as the popular phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — a slogan widely interpreted as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
“These calls for genocide and anti-Jewish violence throughout the world represent antisemitic speech and are not protected by the university’s community standards,” Harvard Hillel said on Thursday in a statement obtained by The Algemeiner. “Students were terrified by this protest and the violence it endorsed, and some were unable to resume work for hours after the protests passed.”
Harvard Hillel called on the university to hold both the individuals and organizations involved in the protest “accountable,” specifically naming the school’s Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), “who promoted these actions that are inconsistent with university policies.” The Jewish group also asked that Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, send a university-wide email to students, staff, and faculty explaining why such actions are not covered by the university’s protected speech and clarifying the consequences for violating them.
The group noted that its members “wholeheartedly support free speech on campus — a sacred right necessary in a free and democratic society. Yet that right does not encompass disruptions to university classes nor hateful slogans chanted on university property. Harvard recognizes this distinction, and therefore rightly does not protect threatening speech or speech that is disruptive to learning on campus.”
The group added” “Protests of this nature have become increasingly normalized on our campus, causing Jewish and Israeli students to avoid class, university events, and dining halls.”
Wednesday’s incident was the latest of several since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel in which Harvard’s campus has been a hub for anti-Israel activists to not only attack the Jewish state but also intimidate and harass Jewish students.
Amid such a hostile environment, Gay denounced the “from the river to the sea” chant, saying it carries “specific historical meanings that to a great many people imply the eradication of Jews from Israel and engender both pain and existential fears within our community.” Pro-Palestinian students have castigated Gay in return, accusing her of squelching speech that addresses what they falsely describe as a “genocide” of Palestinians.
Last week, students protested on campus and issued to Gay a list of demands, which included the reinstatement of a student proctor who three weeks ago participated in mobbing a Jewish student and screaming “Shame!” into his ears. The students presented their demands during their occupation of a campus building.
Another demand in the letter to Gay called for Harvard to “disclose [its] investments in the internationally recognized illegal settlements in Palestine and divest from those holdings” — an apparent nod to the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. The BDS campaign seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward the Jewish state’s eventual elimination.
Harvard has been battling a perception that it harbors antisemitism since the Hamas atrocities in Israel last month, when the Palestinian terror group murdered over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted more than 240 others back to Gaza. As scenes of Hamas terrorists kidnapping children and desecrating dead bodies circulated worldwide and caused global outrage, 31 student groups at Harvard, led by the PSC, issued a statement blaming Israel for the attack and accusing the Jewish state of operating an “open air prison” in Gaza, despite that the Israeli military withdrew from the territory in 2005.
Responding to the statement, Larry Summers, a former US secretary of the treasury under the Clinton administration and a former president of Harvard University, criticized the student groups for justifying terrorist violence and called out the school’s administration for not disavowing support for terrorism.
“The silence from Harvard’s leadership, so far, coupled with a vocal and widely reported student groups’ statement blaming Israel solely, has allowed Harvard to appear at best neutral towards acts of terror against the Jewish state of Israel,” Summers tweeted. “I cannot fathom the administration’s failure to disassociate the university and condemn this statement.”
Gay, who is the first Black American to hold the job as Harvard’s president, has since said “antisemitism has no place at Harvard” and announced the creation of an Antisemitism Advisory Group.
The group, she explained, plans to implement several reforms, including a historical examination of the roots of antisemitism at Harvard, educational programming highlighting the antisemitic origins of anti-Israel rhetoric, raising awareness of anonymous reporting of antisemitic incidents, forging relationships with external groups, and for the first time ever incorporating Holocaust Remembrance Day and Jewish American Heritage Month into the school’s calendar.
“Harvard was founded to advance human dignity through education,” Gay said earlier this month. “We inherited a faith in reason to overcome ignorance, in truth to surmount hate. Antisemitism is destructive to our mission. We will not solve every disagreement, bridge every divide, heal every wound. But if we shrink from this struggle, we betray our ideals.”
Gay — along with two other presidents of elite universities, Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) — have been called to testify before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Dec. 5 about rising antisemitism on college campuses in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Harvard Hillel Decries ‘Terrifying’ Anti-Zionist Protest That Disrupted Classes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: IDF Probes Whether Houthis Used Iranian Cluster Bomb-Bearing Missile

Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
i24 News – The Israeli military said Saturday it launched a probe into the failure of its defenses to fully intercept a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi jihadists, parts of which struck not far from the Ben Gurion airport on Friday night.
According to the Ynet website, one of the hypotheses being examined is that the projectile contained cluster munitions, similar to those used by Iran to fire at Israeli cities during the 12-day war in June. Cluster munitions pose a challenge to interceptors as they disperse smaller explosives over a wide area.
In June, Iran fired several missiles carrying scattered small bombs with the aim of increasing civilian casualties.
The IDF said on Saturday that its initial review suggests the ballistic missile from Yemen likely fragmented in mid-air. Five interceptors from various systems engaged with the missile, including THAAD, Arrow, David Sling & Iron Dome.
Authorities said that shrapnel impacted a house in the central Israeli moshav of Ginaton, yet no one was hurt, with the fragment landing in the house’s backyard.
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Iran Forces Kill Six Militants, IRNA Reports, Israel Link Seen

The Iranian flag is seen flying over a street in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 3, 2023. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iranian security forces shot dead six militants in a clash in southeastern Iran on Saturday, a day after armed rebels killed five police officers in the restive region, the official news agency IRNA reported.
IRNA said evidence showed the group was linked to Israel and may have been trained by Israel‘s Mossad spy agency. There was no immediate Israeli reaction to the allegation.
Another two members of the militant group were arrested, the report said. All but one of the militants were foreign, it added, without giving their nationality.
Iranian police said this month they had arrested as many as 21,000 suspects during the 12-day war with Israel in June.
Iran’s southeast has been the scene of sporadic clashes between security forces and armed groups, including Sunni militants and separatists who say they are fighting for greater rights and autonomy.
Tehran says some of them have ties to foreign powers and are involved in cross-border smuggling and insurgency.
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Benny Gantz Urges Time-Limited National Unity Government to Further Chances of Hostage Deal

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz attends his party’s meeting at the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, June 27, 2022. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz on Saturday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition politicians to form a temporary national unity government to further the chances of bringing home the hostages held in Gaza.
Addressing Netanyahu, Yair Lapid and Avigdor Liberman, Gantz said that the proposed government’s two supreme priorities would be the release of Israeli hostages held by the jihadists of Hamas and instituting universal conscription in Israel by ending the exemption from military service enjoyed by the ultra-Orthodox.
Upon attainment of the goals, the government would dissolve and call an election.
“The government’s term will begin with a hostage deal that brings everyone home,” Gantz said in a video address. “Within weeks, we will formulate an enlistment outline that would see our ultra-Orthodox brethren drafted to the military and ease the burden on those already serving. Finally, we will announce an agreed-upon election date in the spring of 2026 and pass a law to dissolve the Knesset [Israeli parliament] accordingly. This is what’s right for Israel.”