clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Pro-Palestine students at Harvard say they have reached agreement with Uni administration

May 15, 2024 at 4:59 pm

Protest signs are removed from the Harvard Yard encampment in Cambridge, MA on 14 May 2024 [David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images]

Supporters of Palestine who had set up a camp on the campus of Harvard University in the US state of Massachusetts to protest Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza announced that they had reached an agreement with the school administration regarding their demands.

“Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine” announced on X on Tuesday that students had reached an agreement with the school administration and opted to dismantle the Gaza solidarity camp they had established on the campus.

“The Harvard encampment has concluded,” said the group, adding: “As a pre-condition for decamping, the administration will retract suspensions.”

“Administration has also offered us meetings regarding disclosure and divestment with members of the Harvard Management Company and ‘conversations’ regarding the establishment of a Centre for Palestine Studies at Harvard,” the group added.

Students at Harvard University had been holding rallies for the past three weeks, demanding that the University terminate its relations with Israel.

WATCH: Students set up Gaza solidarity encampment at LSE

At least 20 students, who had been involved in the protests, were removed from the school by the decision of the Harvard administration, and more than 60 students were referred for disciplinary action.

Many university administrations in the US are intensifying their efforts to end pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses as graduation ceremonies approach.

Demonstrations began on 17 April at Columbia University to protest Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

The protests have served as a flashpoint for a wider movement to protest Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

At least 35,180 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed amid Israel’s war on the besieged Gaza Strip, while over 79,000 others have been injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

A cross-border attack by the Palestinian group, Hamas, on Israel that precipitated the current war killed about 1,200 people.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

More than seven months into the conflict, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which, in January, issued an interim ruling that ordered it to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

WATCH: Australian uni stages Nakba Day Gaza protest