To the Editor: On the Harvard Yard Encampment’s Disruptions

In Response to “Freshmen Say Noise From Harvard Yard Encampment Not Disruptive, Despite DSO Email” by Madeleine A. Hung and Azusa M. Lippit

For Jewish and Israeli students living in the Yard, the primary issue posed by the encampment is not the noise the chanters make, but that they are advocating for an “Intifada revolution” — an apparent call for terror attacks aimed at Jews.

By framing noise as the main disruption the demonstration poses to residents of the Yard, The Crimson neglects to address many Jewish students’ key concern with the encampment, which is not the existence of loud chants, but rather their content.

Students may claim the chant “Intifada” can have many meanings, but the only historical events that have come to be known as “Intifadas” are the two that occurred in Israel, which have included terrorist attacks, such as suicide bombings, that killed hundreds of innocent Israelis in pizza parlors and on buses. When one types “Intifada Jews” into Google Images, the first image that appears depicts a man in a keffiyeh wielding a knife. Yet The Crimson’s article completely fails to address the hateful content of these chants.

If students calling for another Tulsa Massacre were occupying the Yard, it is difficult to imagine The Crimson’s reporting would focus on their noisiness and disregard their hateful rhetoric. Chants in the encampment declare in Arabic, “From water to water, Palestine is Arab.” Would a chant saying, “From the Atlantic to the Pacific, America is white,” have been more newsworthy?

So yes, loud chants, when laced with calls for violence, bring back the darkest memories of history to Jewish students. And indeed, there is no light to study under the looming shadow of Nuremberg.

The authors completely omit interviews, barring a sole exception, with regular members of the Harvard Hillel or Chabad communities.

It’s time for The Crimson, and the Harvard community as a whole, to decide if antisemitism — not just noise — is newsworthy too.

—Doron Ben Haim ’27 and Zebulon Erdos ’25

You may be aware of an email from Dean of Students Thomas Dunne proclaiming that the “noise regularly coming from the encampment has disrupted the living spaces of first-year students in adjacent dormitories,” as well as an article in The Crimson refuting it.

The Yard is angrier and often louder than it has been in our lifetimes, but chants of “Intifada revolution” and “Hey hey, ho ho, this occupation has got to go” are not noise. Demands to hold the school responsible for Israel’s conduct because of alleged investments and academic collaborations are not noise. They are calls for the dismantling of an extant country — Israel — and harken back to anti-Jewish violence.

What is happening in the Gaza Strip is terrible, but this encampment is unlikely to help. As we watch peer institutions collapse into chaos and watch this encampment toe the line of acceptable use of University grounds, the tension on campus is palpable.

I live in Weld Hall, which I only exit through the back — not because there is a history of violence at the encampment, but because of the demonstrators’ signs, as well as my concern that this could tip at any moment, as it has on many other campuses.

While some Yard residents are unperturbed, I find myself avoiding campus and the Yard as a Jewish student. While some exams in the Yard have been relocated, I assure you, when the protesters chant, you can hear them all the way on the second floor of Cabot library.

It might not be violent, but it can be almost threatening to see and hear the encampment. Even if we do not agree, no one should only exit buildings through the back.

—Camryn Neches ’27

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