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.”

“We will all be well served in such a difficult moment by rhetoric that aims to illuminate and not inflame,” Gay wrote. “And I appeal to all of us in this community of learning to keep this in mind as our conversations continue.”

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.

In an initial statement on Monday, Harvard leaders stopped short of addressing the controversial letter, while noting they are “heartbroken,” by the unfolding events in Israel and Gaza.

Former Harvard President Lawrence Summers railed against the school’s “delayed” response on Monday, arguing the statement failed to “meet the needs of the moment.”

“Why can’t we find anything approaching the moral clarity of Harvard statements after George Floyd’s death or Russia’s invasion of Ukraine when terrorists kill, rape and take hostage hundreds of Israelis attending a music festival?” Summers wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

In a series of other posts on X, Summers called out the silence from Harvard’s leadership, saying “never been as disillusioned and alienated” in his nearly 50 years of affiliation with the school.”

Pointing to past responses to other world conflicts, he said the university’s silence prior to Tuesday allowed the school to “appear at best neutral towards acts 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,” he wrote. “I am sickened. I cannot fathom the Administration’s failure to disassociate the University and condemn this statement.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a Harvard Law School alumni, echoed Summer’s comments on Monday, claiming the school’s silence is “utterly indefensible.”

The university’s Jewish center, Harvard Hillel, said it was “deeply pained” by the students’ joint statement.

“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,” the center wrote.

Fighting raged on in both Israel and Gaza for the fourth day on Tuesday, with death tolls reaching at least 1,800 from both sides.

The Israeli military said Tuesday more than 1,000 people were killed in Israel, while 830 people were killed in Gaza and the West Bank, according to The Associated Press.