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Harvard Let Students Mourn the US Election; Where Was That Sympathy Post-October 7?

Students accusing Israel of genocide at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, Nov. 16, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder

In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s victory in the US election, Harvard professors quickly rescheduled or even canceled classes, offering students space to “process” their emotions.

Class attendance was optional, assignments were extended, and some professors even opened their offices as “spaces to grieve” the results of an election.

This was their response to an exercise of the democratic process. Harvard’s response last year to the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust stands in telling contrast.

On October 7, 2023, when 1,200 Israelis, Americans, and others were massacred by Hamas and Palestinian terrorists, Jewish students were faced not with grief counselors and sympathetic professors, but a mob that was often incited by those same professors. 

The overwrought response to the results of a free and democratic election — which Palestinians have been denied for almost two decades by their own leaders — reveals a troubling pattern of emotional manipulation and simplification by Harvard. It’s a real-world manifestation of a problem that follows the pattern of social media rage-bait. 

On TikTok, algorithm-driven narratives often prioritize distortion over substance. TikTok’s content caters to user preferences, often resulting in echo chambers and oversimplified narratives. However, users generally understand the platform’s nature — it is social media, designed for quick consumption and viral spread. There’s an implicit understanding that content is often exaggerated or sensationalized for engagement.

Harvard, on the other hand, purports to be a bastion of higher learning and critical thinking. Strikingly, its treatment of the Israel-Palestinian conflict has devolved into a similar pattern of reductionism and emotional manipulation. The difference? Harvard’s approach comes with the veneer of academic credibility, making it far more insidious.

On social media, professional expertise is often seen as a plus. Commercial landscapers, fashion designers like me, and devoted activists are sought out for our conclusive opinions. But academia is supposed to be different. Higher education isn’t supposed to deliver an endless stream of hot takes. Universities are meant to teach and hone the process of discovering truth, in contrast to activists who advance crystallized conclusions. You would think that Harvard would want its students in class the day after a pivotal election to engage with the results, not encourage students to retreat from this challenge under the guise of “processing their emotions” — a “processIng” notably free of supervision from mental health professionals. 

“It’s indoctrination, not education,” a faculty member is quoted as saying in the academic audit conducted by the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance (HJAA) released in May 2024.

False accusations of Israeli genocide are buttressed by academic theories like settler colonialism. The HJAA audit found that the settler colonialism framework exists across the School of Public Health, the Divinity School, and the English and Anthropology departments of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, not just in fields focused on the Middle East. 

Since October 8, 2023, Harvard has stubbornly demonstrated that it has sunk below the intellectual standards of TikTok in its approach to the ongoing Middle East conflict. Both Harvard and the social media company present a crude, simplified, and emotionally provocative view of this prominent issue, but at least with TikTok, users know what they’re getting. Harvard today is no better for academic discourse than the comment section on a social media video, the place where carefully cited facts are given the same weight as the poop emoji. In that context, it makes sense that professors would feel students need space to “grieve” a presidential election that didn’t go their way.

However egregious Harvard’s failings are in comparison to TikTok, there is one significant difference, where Harvard does offer hope. We are mired in debates about making social media safe and free, safeguarding the First Amendment while protecting the vulnerable. Clean solutions for social media are elusive. But Harvard does have a clear path to improvement.

Harvard’s recent steps toward institutional neutrality should be applauded and taken as a starting point. Harvard must demonstrate a clear commitment to stamping out antisemitism by adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, conducting an independent investigation into the issue on campus, and actually enforcing the university’s own code equally and transparently. Faculty members, who too often are the ones pushing antisemitism on their students, should have additional training to combat this. And if professors continue to make campus unsafe for the Jewish community, the administration needs to act as the adult in the room and dismiss them. 

Harvard could also end its collaboration with Birzeit University, known for educating would-be terrorists, graduating actual terrorists, some while imprisoned for conducting lethal terror attacks, hosting military parades featuring mock suicide bombers, and barring Israelis from entering.

Scores of students are already reconsidering their attendance at this storied institution because of its failure to prevent campus from turning into the worst iterations of a social media echochamber. Harvard can either renew its focus on academic integrity — and Veritas — or ride the social media cycle through to irrelevance like MySpace and Friendster.

Roni Brunn is the Vice President of Media Relations at the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance and a social media content creator. 

The post Harvard Let Students Mourn the US Election; Where Was That Sympathy Post-October 7? 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.

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