Harvard convocation pamphlet draws backlash for anti-Israel rhetoric and anti-university messages
Pamphlets push pro-Palestinian activism at Harvard Convocation, urging Class of 2029 students to boycott and divest from Israel.
Student groups use orientation to frame Harvard’s investments as complicity, telling freshmen neutrality is not an option in Israel-Palestine conflict.
At the First-Year Convocation this fall, incoming Harvard Class of 2029 students were greeted with pamphlets urging them to join pro-Palestinian activism on campus, including calls to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel.
The pamphlets, distributed during orientation events, detailed instructions on how to “make the most of your time and power as a Harvard student.” Images of the pamphlet were first shared by Sababa Sisters on Instagram.
The first page featured an image of the slogan “Boycott, Divest, Sanction,” painted across large protest banners, alongside posters accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing.”
The pamphlet’s opening declared bluntly: “Yes, the world is f—ed. Yes, it’s f—ed that Harvard funds colonization, exploitation, genocide and imperialism. What can you do?” It continued: “What you are so lucky to be able to do is to spend your time at Harvard not just working to secure your own success, but to join the struggle to dismantle oppression.”
Produced by student groups such as the Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine (HOOP) Coalition and the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), the pamphlets explicitly encouraged new undergraduates to involve themselves in activism against Israel and Harvard’s financial ties.
This material framed student activism as a moral responsibility, linking Harvard’s investments to broader struggles. HOOP described itself as a coalition of “students and student workers committed to Palestinian liberation, demanding that Harvard disinvest and abolish from all of its investments in Israel’s ongoing genocide and settler colonialism of Palestine.”
Another section told students that “neutrality is complicity” and urged them to “organize against Harvard’s ties to apartheid.”
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The pamphlets arrive less than a year after Harvard endured one of the longest campus encampments of 2024. Beginning on April 24, roughly 70 students set up 14 tents in Harvard Yard following a rally of more than 500 attendees, according to Harvard Magazine.
After 20 days, HOOP dismantled the encampment in exchange for Harvard reversing involuntary leaves of absence and agreeing to open dialogue over divestment, The Harvard Crimson reported.
As documented by Harvard Magazine, the university then suspended 5 students and placed 23 on probation, with 12 threatened with delayed graduation. More than 35 student organizations condemned the punishments, and HOOP later claimed that a rally of about 2,000 people gathered in response, according to local coverage.
The pamphlets mark the latest flashpoint in Harvard’s struggle to balance free expression with growing concerns about antisemitism on campus.
Campus Reform reached out to Harvard University for comment but received no response.
