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Updated November 19, 2024, at 11:59 a.m.

About a dozen students rallied outside Harvard Hillel to protest an event with former Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Ronen Manelis on Monday, the first demonstration outside Harvard’s main Jewish center in several years.

The protest was organized by Harvard Jews for Palestine in response to Hillel’s decision to invite Manelis, who served as IDF spokesperson from 2017 to 2019 and chief intelligence officer of the IDF Gaza Division from 2012 to 2014.

Protesters held two banners that read “Hillel Hosts War Criminals” and “IOF Out of Campus Out of Gaza” — referring to the IDF as the “Israeli Occupation Forces.” They briefly chanted “Shame on Hillel,” “From the River to the Sea,” “Israel is a terrorist state,” and “Zionists not welcome here.”

Executive Director of Harvard Hillel Jason B. Rubenstein ’04 wrote in an emailed statement that “Harvard Hillel is and will always be the home of Zionism, and every form of Jewish life, at Harvard.”

“Moreover, we are unyieldingly committed to ensuring that all Jews, including Zionists and Israelis, are welcome in every corner of this university, and enjoy the fullness of a Harvard education undiminished by prejudice,” he added.

In a follow up interview, Harvard J4P organizer Violet T.M. Barron ’26 said she saw the “Zionists not welcome here” chant as “kind of equivalent with ‘Racists are not welcome here.’”

“Zionism is, first and foremost, a political ideology, and a genocidal one at that,” Barron, a Crimson Editorial editor, added.

But Rubenstein denounced the protesters’ chants, saying that they amounted to bigotry.

“Zionism, the pursuit of Jewish self-determination in the land of Israel, is a central element of the religious identity of thousands of Jewish Harvard affiliates. ‘Zionists not welcome here,’ a call for discrimination against much of our community due to our sincerely held beliefs, is bigotry,” Rubenstein wrote. “I hope that everyone here, no matter your positions on Israel or the current war, will recognize it as such.”

While the organizers did not give lengthy speeches, Barron said at the protest that the event with Manelis did not represent the range of beliefs among Jewish students.

“We’re all Jewish and we say, ‘Not in our name,’” Barron said. “Shame on Hillel.”

In response to the protest, a group of Hillel members taped an Israeli flag to the building’s front window.

Hillel has previously refrained from displaying an Israeli flag at the front of its building, despite some students’ request.

In an article published in May in Israel Hayom, an Israeli newspaper, Isaac R. Ohrenstein ’26 said Israeli flags were removed from a Hillel barbecue event last spring because “it wasn’t advertised as ‘pro-Israel.”

In a follow-up statement Tuesday morning after this article’s publication, Rubenstein wrote that “Hillel was aware of, and approved students displaying the Israeli flag in the front of the building.”

After the event, Barron said the group was protesting what she called Manelis’ “very bloody track record” and Hillel’s decision to extend an invitation to speak.

“The fact that Hillel has invited a war criminal in is deeply offensive to us,” Barron said.

During his time as a spokesperson, Manelis issued a controversial response to the largely peaceful Gaza border protests held in 2018 to 2019, also known as the Great March of Return, arguing the protests should be considered terrorism.

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal the same year, he wrote that “there can be no such thing as a peaceful protest in Gaza, only gatherings organized, sanctioned and funded by Hamas.”

Monday’s event itself was billed as a discussion about Iran and the “multi-front challenges Israel faces in this evolving conflict,” according to Hillel’s Instagram. Since Manelis left the IDF in 2019, he has been critical of both the IDF and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Harvard Hillel representatives denied a request from The Crimson to cover the event, saying that the talk with Manelis was off the record.

Barron said the event sent a “pro-war” message and that Hillel had been resistant to inviting non-Zionist leaders to speak. She pointed to Hillel International’s speaker policies, which state the organization will not partner with or host speakers that “delegitimize, demonize, or apply a double standard to Israel.”

Manelis wrote in a statement that “it’s surprising that at a place like Harvard, known for free speech and open debate, there’s such ignorance and unwillingness to engage in real conversation.”

“I will continue to share Israel’s voice around the world,” he added.

Three counterprotesters stayed outside the building for the duration of the protest, holding Israeli flags and a sign that read, “Get them out of hell” along with pictures of the hostages.

Rotem R. Spiegler, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 2019 and regularly visited the spring encampment with an Israeli flag, said she thought the protest might “scare people off” from the event.

“We wanted people to not be afraid to walk in once they see this,” Spiegler added.

Barron wrote in a statement that “People should be deterred from attending an event featuring the former chief spokesperson of the Israeli Occupation Forces, a man who has promulgated violent, false rhetoric at the direct expense of Palestinian lives.”

“The platforming of Manelis, a war criminal, must not be mistaken for an attempt at dialogue nor an event anyone with a moral compass would be caught attending,” she added.

Rubenstein wrote that Hillel encourages conversations around the diversity in campus Judaism.

“To those standing outside Hillel calling for the expulsion of Jews whose Judaism does not meet with your approval, I would say first that we will never leave and we refuse to be marginalized,” he wrote. “And I would invite you to learn about, and from, the rich diversity of Jewish life inside our building and throughout our community.”

“We are committed to approaching everyone on this campus with the care and curiosity due to neighbors, and demand only the same in return,” Rubenstein added.

—Staff writer Rachael A. Dziaba can be reached at rachael.dziaba@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @rachaeldziaba.

—Staff writer Cam E. Kettles can be reached at cam.kettles@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @cam_kettles.