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More than 200 Harvard affiliates and alumni signed an open letter to University President Alan M. Garber ’76 on Wednesday urging Harvard to permanently dissolve the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee.
The letter, which garnered around 3,470 signatures, accused the PSC of “consistent and unrepentant antisemitism,” arguing that a PSC event last week with Palestinian writer and poet Mohammed El-Kurd violated Harvard’s policies against antisemitism.
The letter also urged Harvard to ban El-Kurd from speaking on campus and to take disciplinary action “against all students and organizations who violate Harvard’s antisemitism policies.”
During the PSC’s March 12 event, El-Kurd said Israel is a “racist endeavour” and likened Zionism to white supremacy and Nazism, according to the letter. The letter also alleged that, during the talk, El-Kurd defended posting a message to social media wishing that Zionists “perish.”
El-Kurd declined to comment on the letter’s claims, but wrote in an email that “if Zionists do not want to be compared to Nazis, they should stop acting like Nazis.”
The Wednesday letter was drafted and circulated by several Harvard affiliates but was not sponsored by a formal organization. It was also addressed to Harvard Provost John F. Manning ’82, College Dean Rakesh Khurana, and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Sherri A. Charleston.
Its authors argued that El-Kurd’s remarks are antisemitic under a definition developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which Harvard adopted in January. The definition’s “accompanying examples” stipulate that it is antisemitic to characterize Israel’s existence as a “racist endeavor” or compare its policies to those of the Nazis.
“As part of that adoption, the university committed itself to enforcing its standards by taking decisive action against individuals and groups that violate them,” the letter stated.
The letter also cited chants at pro-Palestine demonstrations — including “from the river to the sea” and “globalize the intifada” — as examples of the PSC engaging in antisemitic activities.
Harvard College and Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment. Asked for an earlier Crimson article whether chants like “from the river to the sea” and “Israel is a racist state” violate its policies, Harvard declined to comment.
Wednesday’s letter was one element in a flurry of messages asking Harvard to penalize the PSC for violating its policies against antisemitism.
Harvard Hillel Executive Director Jason B. Rubenstein ’04 wrote in a statement to The Crimson that Harvard should make recognition of the PSC contingent on “rejection of discrimination against Zionist and Israeli peers” and repudation of “calls for violence” by El-Kurd.
Harvard Chabad, a Jewish group on campus, also called on Harvard to permanently suspend the PSC, accusing the group in a Tuesday Instagram post of being a “mouthpiece for US-designated terrorist entities.”
The allegations referred to the PSC’s sharing on social media of a tweet by Samidoun, a global pro-Palestine advocacy group which the U.S. Treasury Department designated a “sham charity” and fundraising front for a Palestinian terrorist organization last year. Yale University placed a researcher on leave earlier this month after allegations surfaced online that she was connected to Samidoun.
The latest calls to disband the PSC are not the first time the group has faced fierce criticism and accusations of antisemitism. A PSC letter holding the Israeli government “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” released two days after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, ignited the intense backlash that would consume Harvard for months.
But the demands in the letter and from Chabad come at a moment when the government has pressured universities to crack down on pro-Palestine protests — putting their federal funding at stake — and activists have been targeted for deportation. Trump administration officials say their efforts are aimed at rooting out antisemitism and sympathy with terrorists.
The PSC wrote in a statement that the Wednesday letter is the “latest manifestation of U.S. attacks on pro-Palestinian speech.”
“This shameless letter is not divorced from the Trump administration’s attempts at criminalizing pro-Palestinian student groups and organizers,” they wrote. “Whether PSC is disbanded or not, we will continue to keep our eyes on Gaza and fight for disclosure, divestment, reinvestment, and the liberation of Palestinians and all oppressed people, everywhere.”
Jews for Palestine, a unrecognized pro-Palestine student group at Harvard, expressed support for the PSC in a Thursday statement on their Instagram page. The group wrote that “Chabad’s most recent charge mirrors the Trump Administration’s crusade to criminalize, discipline, and deport all who call for Palestinian liberation.”
“It is not the students who protest genocide, but the institutions which normalize it — from the White House to Harvard Chabad — that incite terror,” they added.
The PSC has had a strained relationship with the College’s Dean of Students Office — and has lost its status as a recognized student organization in the past. Last April, Harvard College suspended the PSC for failing to register an April rally in Harvard Yard and violating protest guidelines regarding the use of space.
The group was reinstated as an officially recognized organization five months later in September. Recognized student organizations have access to Harvard mailing lists and can reserve rooms and spaces across the University.
—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.
—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.
