Harvard students call to 'globalize the intifada' during anti-Israel 'week of action'

As anti-Semitism continues to rise on college campuses following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, student activists at Harvard University have doubled down in their efforts to force the school to “stop its complicity in Israeli apartheid.”

According to The Harvard Crimson, dozens of pro-Palestine students held a “week of action” after the university did not agree to their calls to “divest from illegal settlements” in Israel. The week was reportedly organized by members of the Harvard graduate student union’s Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) caucus and the African and African American Resistance Organization.

[RELATED: Harvard students hold 24-hour ‘sit-in’ to promote ‘Palestinian liberation’]

On at least one occasion, students on campus chanted, “Long live Palestine; long live the intifada; intifada, intifada; globalize the intifada.” According to the Anti-Defamation League, the chant refers to “violent Palestinian uprisings against Israel, specifically acts of terrorism and indiscriminate violence against civilians by terrorist groups, including suicide bombings in buses and restaurants.”

The Harvard Hillel organization reportedly responded to the incident by stating, “These calls for genocide and anti-Jewish violence throughout the world represent antisemitic speech and are not protected by the University’s community standards.” 

[RELATED: Harvard to undergo civil rights investigation for campus anti-Semitism]

During the week, pro-Palestine students were also said to have concluded a rally by walking to President Claudine Gay’s office building. 

Several days later, students participated in a “walkout” during the “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.” The Crimson writes that one of the event’s speakers “referenced a meeting between a group of Muslim students and Gay, during which the students ‘shared their traumas about this past month.’”