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I am a proud Zionist. Do you want me dead?

Over the past year, I have grown desensitized to the sound of people chanting for my death. Whether it be chants to “globalize the intifada” or platforming calls for Zionists to “perish,” protestors have lost sight of what was once a clear moral line. This blindness runs rampant within the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and affiliated groups.

Recently, the PSC was suspended by Harvard for apparent actions taken at a rally last Tuesday. But based on their hate-filled track record, they should have been disbanded long ago. Put simply, the PSC’s vitriolic rhetoric is killing campus discourse. Actions have consequences — it has long been time for the group to face theirs.

Just one day after October 7th, the PSC released a statement holding the Israeli government “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” On the first anniversary of the attacks, the group doubled down, refusing to acknowledge the atrocities committed by a terrorist organization. Not once in either letter is Hamas mentioned.

Is kidnapping, rape, and murder, justified when the victims are Jewish?

This type of hateful rhetoric has persisted throughout the PSC’s history. In February 2024, the group shared a heinous antisemitic cartoon depicting a hand tattooed with the Star of David grasping a noose tied around two figures, supposedly Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Muhammad Ali.

The vile illustrations did not stop there. That May, members of Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine — an unrecognized coalition of students similar to and likely sharing substantial membership with the PSC — also created a poster depicting University President Alan M. Garber ’76, who is Jewish, as a devil.

Any group even implicitly conveying such harmful ideals and glossing over a massacre has no place on Harvard’s campus and no right to use our name. The PSC is no friend of Harvard’s.

How can people who seemingly advocate for the slaughter of Zionists claim to fight for justice and freedom in the same breath? Perhaps it is because they do not understand exactly what they call for by using the word “Zionist” or chanting for an intifada.

Zionism is the belief that Jewish people have a right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. Zionism is not the belief that Palestinians, or their communities, should cease to exist. Nor is it a call to support genocide of any kind.

In fact, Zionism has little to do with Palestinians — it is a core value that prioritizes the safety and security of a Jewish homeland. A homeland that would have saved millions of lives in the 1930s and 40s from the terror of Nazi Germany and go on to function as a safe haven for Jews around the world.

A survey reported that 8 in 10 American Jews say “caring about” Israel is a central tenet of being Jewish. So sure, not every Jew is a Zionist — but most are. That’s why it is hard to believe protestors when they claim their disgust toward Zionism has nothing to do with their sentiment toward Judaism. This also brings up a related point: Why are the majority of Jewish people suddenly being denied the right to decide what is or is not antisemitic?

You can be a Zionist and still advocate for the rights and well-being of the Palestinian people. These are not mutually exclusive. The PSC, however, does not see it this way. It seems that for them, supporting the plight of the Palestinians requires a relentless attack on the existence of the Jewish state and the use of highly offensive chants. To many, these chants are calls to eradicate Zionists.

During the series of demonstrations organized in part by the PSC, protesters chanted “globalize the intifada” and“from the river to the sea.” Just a few weeks ago, the organization hosted an event with speaker Mohammed El-Kurd, who has previously called Israel a “racist endeavor,” likened Zionism to Nazism, and defended a post wishing for Zionists to “perish.”

The PSC has shown time and again that this type of antisemitic hatred and bigotry is what it stands for. If any other student organization openly endorsed speakers and chanted for the death of a group of minority students, the outrage, outcry, and condemnation would be immediate.

To be clear, criticizing the Israeli government is vital to maintaining a fruitful democracy. Just as with any other country, the actions of its government do not represent the entirety of its people — something frequently represented in demonstrations by Israeli civilians.

Indeed, all nations have their problems, and are rightfully criticized for such. The key difference, however, is that the right for every other nation to exist is rarely called into question.

Make no mistake: just because it is time for the PSC to go, does not mean discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should go alongside it. But the path to healthy, productive discourse on Harvard’s campus begins with the removal of the PSC.

Dissent is vital and disagreement is healthy. But calling for my death — and that of most Jews — is not dissent.

Chloe I. Goldberg ’28, a Crimson Editorial Editor, lives in Canaday Hall.