Encampment Protesters Briefly Raise 3 Palestinian Flags Over Harvard Yard

From The Harvard Crimson Second photograph from the Daily Mail

Pro-Palestine student protesters at the Harvard Yard encampment flew three Palestinian flags from University Hall on Saturday evening.

A group of three protesters hoisted the flags over the John Harvard statue in the Yard, where the University sometimes flies the American flag or flags of the countries of visiting foreign dignitaries. As of 6:34 p.m., Harvard University Police officers were calling Harvard Yard Operations to remove the flag.

As the staff removed the flags, protesters yelled “Shame!” and chanted “Free, free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

As the campus services Harvard staff member walked away with the Palestinian flags and two HUPD police officers, a student protester on the steps of University Hall attempted to grab the flags from the facilities staffer. Surrounding protesters immediately urged him to stop.

After the facilities staffer removed the flags, protesters willing to have their Harvard University IDs photographed and numbers collected by administrators gathered inside the encampment. Other protesters also gathered outside of the encampment ropes in solidarity.

“Harvard, Harvard take my ID. You can’t really scare me,” the protesters chanted.

Following the flags being raised and then removed, protesters held a vigil for Palestinian killed in the war, during which dozens of protesters sat silently in a semicircle around the John Harvard statue.

At 9 p.m., immediately following the vigil, a group of seven administrators — including Dean of Students Thomas Dunne, Associate Dean of Students Lauren E. Brandt ’01, and Dean of Student Services Michael Burke — arrived from University Hall and entered the encampment zone to check IDs.

Several administrators carried ID scanners. Administrators wrote down the ID numbers of students within the encampment and handed each a slip of paper warning of disciplinary action, including the possibility that graduating seniors could have their degrees withheld.

The warning of disciplinary action . . . (suggests) that the College is moving closer to officially calling undergraduate protesters before the Harvard College Administrative Board.

…administrators exited as protesters — who were chanting “Admin, admin, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide” and “Every dollar Harvard supplies, a neighborhood in Gaza dies” with megaphones and drums — encircled and followed them out of the Yard.

On Wednesday, when the encampment began, protesters at the encampment draped a keffiyeh and a Palestinian flag over the John Harvard statue.

Friday morning,Dunne used a pole to take down the keffiyeh after asking students to also remove the flag, and protesters asked Dunne to take the keffiyeh down himself. Shortly after Dunne’s departure, protesters replaced the keffiyeh on the statue, where it remains as of Saturday evening.