Updated Saturday, April 27th at 9:46 p.m.
On Saturday evening, pro-Palestinian student demonstrators gathered at the Harvard Yard encampment and raised three Palestinian flags from University Hall.
A group of three protesters hoisted a national flag over the statue of John Harvard University in the school grounds, which sometimes displays American flags and flags from countries visited by foreign dignitaries. As of 6:34 p.m., Harvard University police officers had called Harvard University Yards Operations to remove the flag.
When staff removed the flag, participants shouted, “Shame on you!” They chanted, “Free Palestine, free Palestine,” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
As Harvard staff from Campus Services left with a Palestinian flag and two HUPD officers, student protesters on the steps of University Hall attempted to snatch the flag from facility staff. Surrounding demonstrators immediately urged him to stop.
The protesters declined to comment.
In a statement Saturday night, Harvard University spokesman Jonathan L. Swain said the flag display “violates university policy and those involved will be subject to disciplinary action.”
After facility officials removed the flag, demonstrators gathered inside the camp demanding photos of Harvard IDs and numbers collected by administrators. Other protesters also gathered outside the encampment’s ropes in solidarity.
“Harvard, Harvard, please take my ID. You can’t really scare me,” the demonstrators shouted.
After the flags were raised and removed, demonstrators held a vigil to remember the Palestinians killed in the war, during which dozens of protesters quietly stood in a semicircle around the John Harvard statue. I was sitting.
Shortly after the wake, at 9 p.m., a group of seven administrators arrived from University Hall and entered the encampment, including Dean of Students Thomas Dunn, Lauren E. Brandt ’01, and Michael Burke, Dean of Students. To confirm your ID.
Several administrators carried ID scanners. Administrators wrote down the ID numbers of students in the camp and handed each student a slip of paper warning them of disciplinary action, including the possibility of having their graduate degrees withheld.
The document states that “sanctions become increasingly severe for repeated violations of university and school policies,” and that “students pending disciplinary action may not be awarded a degree.” “Yes,” it added.
The disciplinary warning is the third issued by university administrators, following emails from Dunn on Thursday and Saturday, prompting the university to formally summon the undergraduate student protesters to the Harvard Board of Governors. It suggests that it is approaching.
The threat that his degree could be withheld comes weeks before Harvard University’s commencement ceremony. Some of the protesters at the encampment are fourth-year students scheduled to graduate in May.
Administrators have been checking protesters’ IDs daily since Thursday.
Administrators checked the ID numbers of students outside the encampment, including multiple Crimson reporters who were on the scene, but did not take notes.
Within 15 minutes, demonstrators were shouting, “Admin, admin, you can’t hide. We’re charging you with genocide,” and “A dollar in Harvard supplies will kill Gaza,” with megaphones and drums. While shouting, the administrators surrounded him and chased after him. They went out of the garden.
After the government stepped down, protesters convened a group meeting at the military post.
When the Palestinian flag was raised, the American flag was not. University regulations state that the American flag must be hoisted in front of University Hall every Monday through Friday at 7 a.m. and taken down at 4 p.m. for proper preservation.
The first flag was hoisted on the flagpole in Central University Hall at 6 p.m. Protesters initially mounted the flag upside down, but quickly turned it around after a few minutes. At 6:18 p.m., protesters raised a second, smaller Palestinian flag on an adjacent flag pole, followed by a third flag on the last flag pole at 6:23 p.m.
People around the camp cheered as their national flags were raised and chanted “Free, Free Palestine.” The organizer led the way with a megaphone, and the group chanted, “What do you want, justice!” When do you want it? It’s now! “If you don’t understand, shut it down.” Several protesters also took photos.
During the 30 minutes that the flag was raised in Harvard Yard, no university administrators arrived on the scene.
Around 6:40 p.m., organizers posted a photo of the first Palestinian flag raised from University Hall on the Harvard University Out of Occupied Palestine Instagram with the caption “WE FLY FOR PALESTINE.”
“For well over 200 days, Harvard University has ignored the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Until they agree to meet our demands to expose and liberate Israeli apartheid and occupation, we will make Palestine inevitable,” the organizers wrote. “We will continue this liberated area and let the spirit of Palestine fly!”
During the vigil, one demonstrator noted that Saturday night was the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and attended to recall the names of journalists killed in Palestine before and after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel. urged the person.
“Anti-Palestinian racism is so pervasive that instead of talking about how to end Israel’s complicity in genocide, there is a near-silent encampment,” Lara Jirmanas, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School, said in a statement. It’s very sad that people are worried that the ground is too noisy,” he said in a statement. ”
“Students camping in the schoolyard are engaging in one of the most profound educational events of their generation,” Zirmanus added. “They teach us how to hold power accountable when our institutions and democracies fail to fulfill the will of the United States and the global public. to ensure that they have the same access to the dignified life they deserve.”
Securitas officers walked by the John Harvard statue and noted the flag, but did not stop or speak to the protesters. Police officers stationed at Harvard Yard declined to comment on whether they would intervene.
HUPD Chief Victor A. Clay defended the rights of the protesters in a Friday interview with The Crimson, saying, “We are keeping our students safe and they are protesting peacefully. That is their right and we will support that.”
This is not the first time activist groups have used flagpoles to promote their cause. In February 2023, protesters with the anti-rape culture advocacy group Our Harvard Can Do Better hung a banner reading “Shame on Harvard” on two flagpoles in University Hall. It is unclear whether the demonstrators holding up the banners will face disciplinary action.
On Wednesday, as the encampment began, demonstrators at the encampment draped a keffiyeh and a Palestinian flag over the John Harvard statue.
On Friday morning, Dunn used a pole to remove the keffiyeh after asking students to remove the flag as well, but protesters asked him to remove the keffiyeh himself. Immediately after Dunn left, protesters replaced the keffiyeh on the statue, where it remained as of Saturday evening.
—Staff writer Neil H. Shah contributed reporting.
—Staff writer Madeleine A. Hung can be reached at madeleine.hung@thecrimson.com.
—Staff writer Joyce E. Kim can be reached at joyce.kim@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @joycekim324.
