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Harvard affiliates mourned the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed in the ongoing war in Gaza during a vigil on Thursday, the first event hosted by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee since the restoration of their status as an official student organization.
More than 70 students and affiliates gathered on the steps of Memorial Church for the candlelit vigil during the second week of the fall semester. During the vigil, organizers handed out pamphlets titled “There Is No Back To School in Gaza” and speakers highlighted the damage and destruction of universities in Gaza since the start of the war on Oct. 7.
The PSC, which organized Thursday’s vigil, was suspended in April for violating the University’s protest guidelines after it helped organize an unauthorized rally in Harvard Yard. Like other student organizations, the PSC was able to access their full privileges — including registering events with the DSO — after completing all the requirements for reinstatement by Sept. 8.
PSC organizer Sanaa M. Kahloon ’25 said in an interview with The Crimson that she thinks students have been hesitant to attend PSC events for fear of “being perceived in these spaces.”
“Last year it was more of a safety concern,” Kahloon said. “This year, the safety concern is there, but it’s also a concern for discipline from our own school, which is horrifying and horrifyingly inhuman.”
Pro-Palestine student activists at Harvard have been slow to resume the large-scale campus protests that defined the spring semester. Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, a coalition of unrecognized student groups, ended the spring with a 20-day encampment in the Yard, but the fall semester — at least, initially — has been relatively quiet.
Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana wrote in a statement Friday morning that “universities should exemplify spaces where we can discuss challenging ideas, hear competing claims, and no one feels threatened, shunned, or intimidated.”
“We are working with all members of our Harvard community to ensure people can share their viewpoints, hold vigils, and express themselves while maintaining a campus that allows excellent teaching, learning, and research to flourish,” Khurana wrote.
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As students began gathering for the vigil, PSC organizers lined the steps with candles — which were also handed out to attendees — and unfurled a banner with the names of Palestinians who were killed during the war in Gaza.
The gathering opened with four student speakers, who each shared their grief and reflections, and two students who read poems. The vigil also offered an open mic for attendees and later concluded with a moment of silence in memory of the Palestinians killed in Gaza.
Midway through the vigil, organizers handed out pens and paper and encouraged attendees to write letters, thoughts, or prayers to students in Gaza who can’t attend school due to the ongoing war.
PSC organizer Jana Amin ’25 said in an interview that the letter writing activity allowed attendees to “slow down and remember each life for what it was.”
“There’s something really powerful, hopefully, about creating a material trace of our presence here today — of our mourning and of our grief — but also a material trace of so many lives that have been lost, upended, destroyed, paused,” Amin added.
Several hours prior to the vigil, a small group of pro-Palestine protesters demonstrated outside of University Hall, where Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 held town hall with members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
The PSC organizers said the students were an “autonomous group” — unaffiliated with the PSC — protesting new University guidelines on protests and free speech.
Kahloon said the PSC will “continue to allow Harvard students to have a space to gather, mourn, reflect and learn about Palestine.”
“We plan to use our recognized status the same way that we have in the past,” she said.
Amin said that campus provides “little space” for grieving, especially in the case of Palestinian grief.
“I think, unfortunately, the administration does try to do everything to silence Palestinians — but also silence any advocacy for Palestine — and that includes mourning,” she said.
“Mourning is a human right, and we’ll find a way to do it,” Amin added. “Always.”
—Staff writer Sally E. Edwards contributed reporting.
—Staff writer Madeleine A. Hung can be reached at madeleine.hung@thecrimson.com.
—Staff writer Joyce E. Kim can be reached at joyce.kim@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @joycekim324.
