LONDON: Israel is “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” and the attacks by Hamas “did not happen in a vacuum,” 31 Harvard student organizations have said.
Releasing a “Joint Statement by Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the Situation in Palestine,” the organizations said Israel had forced Palestinians to live in an “open-air prison for over two decades.”
The statement added: “The apartheid regime is the only one to blame. Israeli violence has structured every aspect of Palestinian existence for 75 years.
“From systematized land seizures to routine airstrikes, arbitrary detentions, military checkpoints, enforced family separations, and targeted killings.”
The statement followed attacks against Israel on Saturday by Hamas that have left at least 700 dead, thousands injured and over 100 kidnapped.
Citing Israeli officials’ “promise” to “open the gates of hell” in response to the attacks, the statement said Palestinian civilians would bear the brunt of Israeli reprisals as it urged the Harvard community to stop the “annihilation” of Palestinians.
Princeton professor of jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals & Institutions blasted the statement.
Robert George wrote on X: “31 — yes 31 — Harvard organizations have declared that the murders, rapes, kidnappings, and other atrocities committed by Hamas against innocent people are in no way the fault of Hamas but are rather entirely the fault of ... Israel.”
Among the groups to have signed the letter are Harvard’s African American Resistance Organization and Harvard Jews for Liberation.
