Harvard head says students don’t speak for school after widely condemned Hamas-Israel statement
Harvard University’s president spoke out Tuesday amid national backlash over a student group’s statement that condemned Israel amid it’s ongoing conflict with Hamas, emphasizing the group does not speak for the entire school.
“Such inhumanity is abhorrent, whatever one’s individual views of the origins of longstanding conflicts in the region,” Harvard University President Claudine Gay wrote in a statement, referring to the ongoing strikes.
“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 students groups — speaks for Harvard University or its leadership,” she added.
Gay said there should be no doubt that she condemns the “terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.”
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Her comments come three days after the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee published a statement that they “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” in the wake of Hamas’s multi-pronged attack on Israel.
The letter, co-signed by 33 other Harvard student organizations, immediately came under fire from school alumni and even U.S. lawmakers.
