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Harvard University’s president on Tuesday broke her silence about student groups that blamed Israel for the attack by Hamas terrorists, saying that those students do not represent the university.
A letter Saturday signed by more than 30 student organizations at Harvard that defended Hamas drew widespread criticism, including from alumni who also criticized the lack of a response by Harvard’s leadership.
“Such inhumanity is abhorrent, whatever one’s individual views of the origins of long-standing conflicts in the region,” Harvard University President Claudine Gay said in a statement Tuesday. “Let me also state, on this matter as on others, that while our students have the right to speak for themselves, no student group — not even 30 student groups — speaks for Harvard University or its leadership.”
She wrote that there should be no doubt that she condemns “the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.”
“We will all be well served in such a difficult moment by rhetoric that aims to illuminate and not inflame,” she said. “And I appeal to all of us in this community of learning to keep this in mind as our conversations continue.”
The university released a more general statement condemning the Hamas attack on Monday, but this was the first time the letter was addressed.
Nearly 2,000 deaths have been recorded from both sides, with at least 14 Americans being killed, according to officials.
The letter signed by students in groups such as the school’s Amnesty International affiliate, Harvard Jews for Liberation and the Harvard Islamic Society, said that they “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”
“Today’s events did not occur in a vacuum,” it said. “For the last two decades, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison.”
The student organization’s letter said that the “apartheid regime is the only one to blame.”
“Israeli violence has structured every aspect of Palestinian existence for 75 years. From systematized land seizures to routine airstrikes, arbitrary detentions to military checkpoints, and enforced family separations to targeted killings, Palestinians have been forced to live in a state of death, both slow and sudden,” the letter said.
They wrote that “today, Palestinian ordeal enters into uncharted territory” and that they call on the Harvard community to “take action to stop the ongoing annihilation of Palestinians.”
The letter was quickly condemned by university alumni, lawmakers and other student groups.
Harvard Hillel wrote in a statement that they were “deeply pained that instead of finding solace and support” from their classmates, they “encountered further hatred and anti-Semitism.”
“In the strongest terms, we oppose this outrageous statement that blames Israel for the violence carried out by Hamas terrorists — a group that has opposed peace and called for Israel’s destruction since it was founded,” they wrote.
Economist Larry Summers, who served as Secretary of the Treasury and director of the National Economic Council, wrote in a series of statements on X that, “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 act of terror against the Jewish state of Israel.”
“Instead, Harvard is being defined by the morally unconscionable statement apparently coming from two dozen student groups blaming all the violence on Israel,” Mr. Summers, a past president of Harvard, said. “I am sickened. I cannot fathom the Administration’s failure to disassociate the University and condemn this statement.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik, New York Republican and Harvard alum, called the letter “abhorrent and heinous.”
“It is abhorrent and heinous that Harvard student groups are blaming Israel for Hamas’ barbaric terrorist attacks that have killed over 700 Israelis,” Ms. Stefanik wrote on X Sunday. “Any voice that excuses the slaughter of innocent women and children has chosen the side of evil and terrorism.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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