Thirty-one Harvard student organizations released a letter Saturday that claimed Israel was “entirely responsible” for the “unfolding violence” in the Middle East that has left over 1,100 people dead in both Israel and Gaza after Hamas, an Iranian-backed terrorist organization, launched attacks against Israel over the weekend.
On Saturday, Hamas conducted multiple attacks throughout the southern region of Israel and took a large number of Israeli soldiers and civilians hostage. The Iranian-backed terrorist organization killed over 700 people and left thousands of civilians injured, according to Fox News.
After news of the devastating attacks was reported, 31 Harvard student organizations signed a statement placing all of the blame on Israel for the violence carried out by Hamas terrorists.
“We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” the student organizations wrote. “Today’s events did not occur in a vacuum. For the last two decades, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison. Israeli officials promise to ‘open the gates of hell,’ and the massacres in Gaza have already commenced.”
In the letter, the students claimed that the Palestinians in Gaza do not have anywhere to shelter or to escape from the current violence, suggesting that the Palestinians “will be forced to bear the full brunt of Israel’s violence.”
“The apartheid regime is the only one to blame,” the student organizations added. “Israeli violence has structured every aspect of Palestinian existence for 75 years. From systematized land seizures to routine airstrikes, arbitrary detentions to military checkpoints, and enforced family separations to targeted killings, Palestinians have been forced to live in a state of death, both slow and sudden.”
Harvard’s student organizations concluded the letter by calling on the Harvard community to “take action to stop the ongoing annihilation of Palestinians,” which the students said would “require a firm stand against colonial retaliation.”
The letter released by the Harvard student organizations, titled “Joint Statement by Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the Situation in Palestine,” quickly drew backlash on social media.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who is a 2006 Harvard graduate and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, publicly called for Harvard to “condemn” the letter written by its student organizations.
“It is abhorrent and heinous that Harvard student groups are blaming Israel for Hamas’ barbaric terrorist attacks that have killed over 700 Israelis,” she tweeted. “Any voice that excuses the slaughter of innocent women and children has chosen the side of evil and terrorism. I am calling on the leadership of @Harvard to immediately publicly condemn these vile anti-Semitic statements.”
