Harvard University has negotiated a deal to end a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” that an anti-Zionist student group had erected at Harvard Yard and lived in for nearly three weeks, the school’s president announced on Tuesday.

The agreement was highly favorable to the students, including the processing of reinstatement petitions for those who were placed on “involuntary leave” — a measure which in effect disenrolled the students from school and banned them from campus — and a meeting with the school’s Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (CCSR) to discuss the possibility of divestment from companies linked to Israel.

“With the disruption to the educational environment caused by the encampment now abated, I will ask that the schools promptly initiate reinstatement proceedings for all individuals who have been placed on involuntary leave of absences,” interim Harvard president Alan M. Garber said in a statement. “I will also ask disciplinary boards within each school to evaluate expeditiously, according to their existing practices and precedents, the cases of those who participated in the encampment.”

He added, “There will continue to be deep disagreements and strongly felt emotions as we experience pain and distress over events in the wider world. Now, more than ever, it is crucial to do what we do at our best, creating conditions for true dialogue, modeling ways to build understanding, empathy, and trust, and pursuing constructive change anchored in the rights and responsibilities we share.”

Harvard maintains that it has not granted “amnesty” to any student placed on involuntary leave or charged with violating school rules.

On Tuesday, the group principally responsible for organizing the demonstration, Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine (HOOP), dismissed the deal as duplicitous and issued a warning to the school.

“As a precondition for decamping, administration will retract suspensions. Administration has also offered us meetings regarding disclosure and divestment with members of the Harvard Management Company,” HOOP continued. “We are under no illusions: we do not believe these meetings are divestment wins. These side-deals are intended to pacify us away from full disclosure & divestment. Rest assured, they will not … Harvard beware: the liberated zone is everywhere.”

HOOP’s “decamping” ends a battle of wills between anti-Zionist students and the administration that began after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. Following the tragedy, the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) issued a statement blaming Israel for the attack and vowed to pressure the university to cut ties with the Jewish state. A slew of incidents came next: Students stormed academic buildings chanting “globalize the intifada,” a mob followed and surrounded a Jewish student, screaming “Shame! Shame! Shame!” into his ears, and the Harvard Law School student government passed a resolution that falsely accused Israel of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

High-level university officials and faculty also engaged in questionable conduct.

In December, former Harvard University president Claudine Gay told a US congressional committee that calling for a genocide of Jews living in Israel would only violate school rules “depending on the context” — an incident that ultimately prompted her resignation. In February, Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine — a spinoff of a student group allegedly linked to terrorist organizations — shared an antisemitic cartoon on social media which showed a left-hand tattooed with a Star of David, containing a dollar sign at its center, dangling a Black man and an Arab man from a noose. The group’s former leader, history professor Walter Johnson, later participated in HOOP’s encampment and encouraged the protesters to defy the university’s order to leave the area.

“There’s no room for reasoned discussion about this action!” Johnson, amplifying his voice with a megaphone, bellowed before the mass of students. “If Harvard will not disclose its investments in the occupied territories, in the Israeli military, and in Gaza it does not make sense to repeat the words ‘civil discourse and reasoned interchange.’ It does not make sense to repeat the word ‘veritas!’”

Harvard will be dealing with the fallout of the events of this academic year for the foreseeable future. It is currently being investigated by the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce and is being sued by a Jewish alumni group that accuses it of cheapening the value of a Harvard degree by hesitating to address antisemitism on campus.

According to The Harvard Crimson, lawyers representing the university filed a second motion to dismiss the suit on Monday, arguing that the plaintiffs’ claim lacks legal standing.

“Harvard’s reputation is tanking due to the coddling of antisemitism,” Robert Tolchin, a lawyer for the alumni group told the paper. “Yet Harvard’s response to the lawsuit is pettifoggery over whether Harvard owes any obligation to its graduates to maintain Harvard’s reputation … Harvard’s position is shocking, and every Harvard student and alumnus should be shocked.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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