Thousands of Angry Students Support Suspended Pro-Palestine Fellows at Harvard: Repression will Make Us Stronger

By Staff, Agencies

Hundreds of Pro-Palestine and anti-Zionist students as well as guest activists stormed out of the Harvard University graduation commencement on Thursday to protest on behalf of 13 encampment demonstrators who were unable to graduate due to so-called “disciplinary” actions against them as they protested to end the “Israeli” genocide in Gaza.

The Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine [HOOP] coalition unveiled that over a thousand activists walked out of the ceremonies to march to the Harvard-Epworth Church, where they held a people's commencement to honor 23 students placed on multi-semester probation and 5 students who had been suspended.

"While today might be commencement, this is just the beginning of the movement at Harvard!" warned HOOP.

Harvard said in a Wednesday statement that 13 students were unable to graduate because of the punishments for involvement in the protest encampment established on April 24, in contrast to previous statements by the suspended Harvard Palestinian Solidarity Committee that 15 students had been denied degrees.

The corporation said that it would consider the conferral of degrees after FAS review of disciplinary appeals.

"Your repression only makes us stronger," said HOOP. "Collective punishment will not slow us down. There can be no peace during genocide, and we will not rest until Harvard divests.

The Harvard encampment, established after an April 20 call to action by National Students for Justice in Palestine to emulate Columbia University's campus occupation, sought like the others of its movement for institutions to end financial and academic ties to apartheid “Israel”.

Harvard PSC said that Harvard had broken its promise to retract suspensions as a precondition for the removal of the camp on May 14.