Harvard College has finally suspended, albeit temporarily, its Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) on Wednesday for the remainder of the semester and students will face expulsion if they continue to operate.
The PSC was an organizer of a protest with more than 200 people on Friday at Harvard Yard. The demonstration featured speeches from members of the PSC, the African and African American Resistance Organization, Law Students for a Free Palestine, and the unofficial Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions caucus of Harvard’s graduate-student union.
The college sent an email informing the PSC of suspension and cited the Friday protest as failing to abide by school policies:
“The organization will not be recognized and will not have access to university benefits and services during this time, including but not limited to use of campus space and appropriate use of the Harvard name,” reads an email from Harvard College, reviewed by the student-run publication The Harvard Crimson. “If the organization continues to operate and commits additional violations during this suspension, the organization risks permanent expulsion, as provided in the Resource Guide.”
“For the past 6 months, PSC has faced unprecedented repression — doxxing, racist harassment, and targeted administrative crackdowns — as we’ve protested the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” the student group said in a statement announcing its suspension.
The Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine released a statement condemning the college’s decision and calling for the undergraduate group to be reinstated.
“For the past 7 months our students have been subjected to an escalating campaign of harassment, intimidation, and racist hate speech, and targeted by some of the University’s wealthiest and most powerful donors and politicians,” the faculty and staff group said in a statement. “The university has summarily disposed of academic freedom and constitutionally protected freedoms of dissent in an effort to silence students for speaking out against apartheid, occupation and genocide.”
