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A new chant, ‘From water to water, Palestine will be Arab,’ fills the halls of Harvard

The students later lay on the steps of the library, pretending to die.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

Harvard University students continue to chant slogans widely deemed genocidal against Jews, according to new footage of a “die-in” protest that has gone viral on social media.

On Monday, dozens of students, led by “Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine,” amassed on the steps of the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library and chanted “From water to water, Palestine will be Arab” in Arabic, following the phrase with a rhythmic, call-and-response chanting of “Free, Free, Palestine!”

“They’re clearly calling for a very frightening vision of what they think should happen in Israel and Palestine,” Harvard University student Charlie Covit told The Algemeiner on Tuesday. “Just imagine students chanting that America should be white from the Atlantic to the Pacific. One might argue that doesn’t constitute calling for a genocide of minorities, but it’s still immensely frightening and racist.”

The students, according to The Harvard Crimson, later lay on the steps of the library, pretending to die.

Since Oct. 7, extremist anti-Zionists at Harvard have oscillated between commending violence committed by Hamas — which murdered civilians and raped women during a massacre across southern Israel — and condemning violence when it appears that Israel may successfully eradicate the terrorist group from the Palestinian territories, calling for a “ceasefire now” and falsely accusing Israel of “genocide,” for example. Monday’s protest condemned Israel’s military operation in the city of Rafah, which resulted in the recovery of two hostages kidnapped by Hamas.

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“According to the Hamas view of things, there are no civilians in Israel and no combatants in Gaza. Every death in Israel can be justified in some way,” Covit said, commenting on the protesters’ mixed messaging. “It’s scary, especially as we learn more about what happened on Oct. 7. If they really cared about Palestinians, let them criticize Israel, but let them also say ‘maybe don’t build tunnels under [the United Nations Relief and Works Agency].”

For Harvard, America’s oldest institution of higher education and arguably its most prestigious, the presence of radical anti-Zionists on campus has been a persistent issue. At the start of this academic year, a student and anti-Israel activist interrupted a convocation ceremony held by the school, shouting at Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana, “Here’s the real truth — Harvard supports, upholds, and invests in Israeli apartheid, and the oppression of Palestinians!”

In November, a mob of anti-Israel activists — including Ibrahim Bharmal, editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review — followed, surrounded, and intimidated a Jewish student on campus. “Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!” the crush of people screamed in a call-and-response chant into the ears of the student who —as seen in the footage — was forced to duck and dash the crowd to free himself from the cluster of bodies that encircled him.

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Three weeks later, they issued a set of demands an an ultimatum to former Harvard President Claudine Gay, which included the reinstatement of a student proctor involved in mobbing the Jewish student.

The conduct of administrators has also caused concern from Jewish students, alumni, and elected officials. Claudine Gay waited several days to condemn the Hamas atrocities, and when she did, her statement said nothing about antisemitism. Gay, who has since resigned in disgrace, eventually condemned students’ chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” another chant interpreted as calling for a genocide of Jews in Israel, however, she severely undermined the public’s confidence in her administration after she suggested during a congressional hearing that calling for the genocide of Jews does not necessarily constitute bullying and harassment on campus.

Harvard’s mounting controversies prompted an investigation by the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce, an inquiry administrators have allegedly obstructed by refusing to share documents requested by committee chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC). On Wednesday, Foxx issued the school a “final warning” to comply with the committee’s instructions.

In the interim, the school is managing another antisemitism scandal following reports that a Middle Eastern studies professor has invited Dalal Saeb Iriqat, an extreme anti-Zionist and alleged advocate of terrorism, to the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS).