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.
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.
