Harvard President Garber Criticizes PSC Statement as ‘Offensive’

Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 criticized a statement by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee that described Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 as the day “Gaza broke through Israel’s blockade.”

“I would remind everyone that they speak for themselves,” Garber said in an interview with The Crimson on Tuesday, his first since his appointment as Harvard’s 31st president.

However, Garber said he would not respond to the PSC’s Monday statement with an official University message, demonstrating how he will lean on the University’s new institutional voice policy to avoid speaking about public events.

“Although I don’t agree with the statement — in fact, there are aspects of it that I personally find offensive — I am not about to make University statements about matters of public affairs that are not part of the core of the University,” Garber said.

Garber’s comments came just hours after the PSC issued another controversial statement on Instagram, which stated that Oct. 7 showed the world “that the ongoing Nakba and apartheid cannot stand.”

In their statement on Monday, the PSC also called for student protesters to ramp up their pro-Palestine activism on campus.

“Now is the time to escalate,” the PSC wrote on Monday.

“Harvard continues to defend its investments in this genocidal regime despite repeated student and faculty demands for disclosure and divestment,” they wrote. “Harvard’s insistence on funding slaughter only strengthens our moral imperative and commitment to our demands.”

The PSC post on Monday echoed a statement released in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks that held Israel “entirely responsible for all the unfolding violence.”

The original statement last year faced national criticism and placed intense pressure on former Harvard President Claudine Gay to condemn the attacks and distance the University from the statement, which had been initially co-signed by more than 30 student groups at Harvard.

The new pro-Palestine student group statement is likely to test Garber against the same pressures that led to Gay’s fateful Dec. 5 testimony before Congress and, eventually, her resignation as president.

Gay’s widely-criticized Oct. 9, 2023, statement — and the series of clarifying remarks that followed — first ignited debate among Harvard affiliates about when the University should comment on world events. Two days after her initial statement, Gay followed with another message that condemned Hamas and distanced the University from the student statement, though it did little to quell the backlash.

As interim president, Garber moved quickly to adopt a new institutional voice policy that discourages University officials from making statements on controversial issues that are not “directly related to the core function of the university.” The statement was in large part crafted to address the situation Gay faced in 2023 and that Garber faces now.

“Given the diversity of viewpoints within the university, choosing a side, or appearing to do so can undermine the inclusivity of the university community,” the institutional voice policy states.

Garber, however, said that the message issued by Gay last year — which distanced the University from the student groups’ pro-Palestine statement — would not necessarily violate the University’s new policy.

“Insofar as we need to clarify that student student group announcements don’t represent the University, that is totally within bounds,” Garber said.

—Staff writer Emma H. Haidar can be reached at emma.haidar@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @HaidarEmma.

—Staff writer Cam E. Kettles can be reached at cam.kettles@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @cam_kettles.