Harvard Faces New Test With Anti-Israel Protest Inside Widener Library

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A December 10, 2023 anti-Israel protest inside Harvard’s Widener Library.

On December 10, 2023, an anti-Israel protest inside Harvard’s Widener library during reading period was a key indication that, rather than getting better, the situation on that campus was deteriorating. A tweet I posted then about the protest garnered nearly half a million views. “Honestly in the culture of Harvard this is like desecrating the temple. Protest all you want on the sidewalk, inside Harvard yard, takeover Mass Hall, university hall. Yell whatever silliness you want outside. But do not protest *inside* Widener Library during reading period,” I wrote.

Later that same month, Senator Dan Sullivan, Republican of Alaska, wrote about the library protest in a piece for the Wall Street Journal editorial page:

“Imagine if you were an 18-year-old Jewish or Israeli student, or even a pro-Israel Catholic like me, and you wanted to study for your chemistry final in the Widener Reading Room on a Sunday morning,” Sen. Sullivan writes in the Wall Street Journal. “Imagine being confronted by this protest, obviously condoned by Harvard’s leadership and commandeered by the Palestine Solidarity Committee, the group behind the notorious statement that holds ‘the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence’ in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack.

“Would you feel welcome in Harvard’s most famous library? Would you feel rattled, intimidated, and harassed by the anti-Israel banner screaming ‘Stop the Genocide in Gaza’?...”

Perhaps partially in response, when Alan Garber took over as interim president of Harvard after Claudine Gay was ousted under pressure, he and the Harvard deans issued a January 19 “Statement of the Interim President and Deans of Harvard University on University Rights and Responsibilities.” It said in part, “unless a particular School makes an explicit exception, demonstrations and protests are ordinarily not permitted in classrooms and other spaces of instruction; libraries or other spaces designated for study, quiet reflection, and small group discussion; dormitories, residence halls, or dining halls where students live and take their meals; offices where the work of the University is carried out; or other places in which demonstrations and protests would interfere with the normal activities of the University.” [emphasis added].

Now the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee—newly reinstated as an officially recognized Harvard student organization—is challenging Garber and the deans by announcing, for 11:45 am Saturday September 21, 2024, a “hands off Lebanon” “emergency Widener Study-in.” Instructions posted on social media advise participants to “silently walk-in the library once everyone gathers” and “enter and sit on the chairs and work insider the Loker reading room. Stick the flyers to the back of your laptops—we will provide tape.” And to “silently exit at 1 p.m.”

Will Harvard permit an inside-the-library anti-Israel protest after sending the whole community an email asserting that libraries are places for studying, not protesting?