Harvard Yard Invaded by Anti-Israel Encampment; ‘Intifada Revolution’

Anti-Israel protesters invaded Harvard Yard on Wednesday, the second day of Passover, setting up an encampment and chanting “intifada revolution,” provoking an angry response from Jewish leaders concerned for student safety.

Harvard Chabad rabbi Hirschy Zarchi posted a statement on Instagram:

I’m hearing from first-year students who, while studying for exams in their dorm room, are being confronted with terrifying chants of globalize the Intifada – a call for the murder of Jews. I’m now receiving calls from their parents who are frightened to learn that Hamas supporters are being allowed to camp out in Harvard Yard – in brazen defiance to the university’s explicit guidelines – and are chanting in support of terrorism and call for the murder of Jews.

The last two nights at the Harvard Chabad Seder table, along with Jews around the world, we read the words of the Passover Haggadah
how “in each and every generation they rise up against us to destroy us. And the Holy One, blessed be He, rescues us from their hands.” That those who seek the destruction of the Jewish people are receiving support from Harvard students and other university students around the country – as we heard today from Hamas, should shake every moral person to their core.

We call on University leadership to remove these Jew haters and Hamas lovers who are continuously and brazenly violating university code of conduct, not to mention their own humanity.

Harvard had locked the gates of the historic Yard earlier in the week, restricting entry to those with Harvard ID’s. There were enough of those on Wednesday to launch a planned rollout of tents and other camping equipment.

In addition to demanding that Harvard divest from Israeli companies, the protesters were reportedly upset about the suspension of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) for earlier, unauthorized protests.

As Breitbart News reported earlier this week, the PSC was suspended for a protest last Friday in solidarity with anti-Israel students at Columbia University. It was told that additional violations would lead to the group being banned.

The Harvard Crimson noted that university administrators asked the protesters to keep quiet between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. Protesters also warned each other about automatic sprinklers set to go off during the night.

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.

Photo: file