Around New England

Harvard President Condemns Hamas Attack On Israel Three Days After The Fact, Under Pressure

October 11, 2023

Harvard University’s new president on Tuesday condemned Hamas for invading Israel – three days after the attack occurred, and only after pressure from prominent alumni.

More than 1,200 Israelis have been killed since Hamas launched an attack that included more than 3,000 rockets and an armed invasion into the southern inhabited regions of the State of Israel from the neighboring Gaza Strip at 6:30 a.m. local time Saturday, October 7, according to The Times of Israel.

Two days later, on Monday, October 9, Lawrence Summers, who served as president of Harvard from 2001 to 2006, pointed out what he called “The silence from Harvard’s leadership … coupled with a vocal and widely reported student groups’ statement blaming Israel solely …”

“In nearly 50 years of @Harvard affiliation, I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today,” Summers wrote on X (formerly formally known as Twitter) on Monday, October 9.

Later that day, Harvard released a statement signed by Gay and 17 other administrators saying they were “heartbroken by the death and destruction unleashed by the attack by Hamas that targeted citizens in Israel this weekend.”

But the statement on Monday, October 9 did not expressly condemn Hamas for the attack.

The next day, Tuesday, October 10, Harvard released a statement signed only by Gay that said:

As the events of recent days continue to reverberate, let there be no doubt that I condemn the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas. Such inhumanity is abhorrent, whatever one’s individual views of the origins of longstanding conflicts in the region.

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.

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

Gay, 53, took over as president of Harvard on July 1, 2023. She was inaugurated on Friday, September 29. During her inaugural speech, she highlighted “the importance of courage.”

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