Panic as Automatic Sprinklers Soak Harvard's Anti-Israel Encampment

Anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian, and pro-Hamas protesters who camped out in Harvard Yard on Wednesday received a rude awakening overnight as automatic sprinklers switched on, soaking tents and sending the activists into a panic.

The Harvard Crimson reported that sprinklers began to turn on after 2:00 a.m. in 36º Fahrenheit weather. It later noted at 4:05 a.m. ET:

As protesters spend their first night in the Harvard Yard encampment, the biggest threat to their stay has not come from administrators or Harvard University police officers, but the Yard’s sprinklers.

Two more sprinklers turned on at the edge of the encampment near Massachusetts Hall. The sprinklers began to hit tents on the edge of the camp before protesters rushed over to covered the sprinklers with buckets and sit on them.

Harvard closed the gates of Harvard Yard to all but Harvard ID holders on Sunday, hoping to avoid the encampments that hit other universities. But there were enough Harvard students among the anti-Israel radicals to set up tents.

As Breitbart News reported, activists unfolded their encampment amid chants of “Intifada revolution!”, which local rabbis and Jewish students interpreted as a threat to their physical safety.

In a strange coincidence, Wednesday also marked the second day of Passover, a period in which Jews begin saying a traditional prayer for dew to fall overnight.

WATCH: Anti-Israel Protesters Chant on Harvard Campus

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.