CAMBRIDGE, Mass. � On a campus already bitterly divided, the statement
poured acid all over Harvard Yard.

A coalition of more than 30 student groups posted an open letter on the
night of the Hamas attack, saying that Israel was �entirely responsible�
for the violence that ended up killing more than 1,400 people, most of
them civilians.

The letter, posted on social media before the extent of the killings was
known, did not include the names of individual students.

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But within days, students affiliated with those groups were being doxxed,
their personal information posted online. Siblings back home were
threatened. Wall Street executives demanded a list of student names to ban
their hiring. And a truck with a digital billboard � paid for by a
conservative group � circled Harvard Square, flashing student photos and
names, under the headline, �Harvard�s Leading Antisemites.�

Campuses have long wrestled with free speech. What is acceptable to say
and what crosses into hate speech? But the war between Israel and Hamas
has heightened emotions, threatening to tear apart already fragile campus
cultures.

Complicating it all: outside groups, influential alumni and big-money
donors, who are putting maximum pressure on students and administrators.

At the University of Pennsylvania, donors are pushing for the resignation
of the president and the board chair, after a Palestinian writers�
conference on campus invited speakers accused of antisemitism.

At Harvard, a billionaire couple quit an executive board. Another donor
pulled money for fellowships. And Lawrence Summers, a former Harvard
president and Treasury secretary, criticized the leadership for a
�delayed� response to the Hamas attack and the student letter.

This is not the first time that Harvard students have taken up an
unpopular view. But those involved with the letter had not anticipated
that their statement would go viral and unleash such repercussions.

The students had to contend with �people�s lives being ruined, people�s
careers being ruined, people�s fellowships being ruined,� one student
whose organization signed the letter said in an interview.

Many critics have little forbearance for these complaints, saying that the
letter itself showed a lack of empathy. But other students and free-speech
activists say that the outside pressure has created its own kind of
heckler�s veto, dictating what can be said on campus and how institutions
must respond.

�You kind of feel like you�re responsible� for the harassment, said one of
the Harvard students, whose family�s personal information was released.
�That�s how silencing works, right?�

The Letter and Its Aftermath

Last week, in a bland conference room on the campus, four student leaders
in the pro-Palestinian movement � three women and a man, all
undergraduates � sat nervously around a table. A kaffiyeh, a checkered
scarf that has become a symbol of Palestinian solidarity, was tossed on a
chair.

They were not Palestinian, they said, but activists for marginalized
people.

The groups that signed the letter often worked together in a kind of
informal support network, the students said. When one championed an issue,
the others might sign on in a show of collegiality.

They had agreed to be interviewed but insisted on anonymity, saying that
they feared for their safety. They asked that even the smallest details of
their personal lives � freshman? senior? � not be published.

They have been avoiding publicity since posting their letter on Facebook
and Instagram on the night of Oct. 7, hours after the attack.

As the world increasingly focused on Hamas� trail of terror in Israel,
their letter opened with the line: �We, the undersigned student
organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all
unfolding violence.�

After the letter went viral, and anger against it erupted, some of the
groups distanced themselves from the message.

Attention has now shifted to Israel�s ongoing retaliation and the toll on
civilians in the Gaza Strip, and these students are sticking with their
stance, although they said it has been wearing.

One of the women found out from a friend about the billboard truck. It was
parked just outside the university gates, plastered with a giant image of
her smiling face. Customers sitting at a pastry shop, students looking out
of their dormitory windows and commuters rushing to and from the train
station could see her, along with a carousel of other students, being
branded as antisemitic.

�I threw up in Harvard Yard,� she said.

The truck is operated by Accuracy in Media, a conservative group that has
also deployed such trucks at other campuses, including Stanford and the
University of California, Berkeley.

�It�s ironic that students on the campus where Facebook was invented are
shocked that their names are publicly available,� said Adam Guillette,
president of Accuracy in Media. �We�re merely amplifying their message.�

The group is not done. It has purchased domain names for Harvard students
associated with the letter and is setting up individual websites for them.
Each site will call for the university to punish the students.

Students� names were also exposed last week through a website featuring a
�College Terror List, a Helpful Guide for Employers� compiled by Maxwell
Meyer, a 2022 Stanford graduate.

Meyer, 23, said in an interview that his information had come from public
sources and tips sent to an email address. He said he had no affiliation
with Accuracy in Media.

His website was removed by Google and Notion, the note-taking app where it
was displayed, Meyer said. (The students said alumni had helped remove
it.) But other sites have picked up the list and passed it around.

Meyer said that as a former editor of the conservative Stanford Review, he
was a defender of free speech. �At one point, I defended critics of Israel
against what I called right-wing cancel culture,� he said.

But �if you�re a member of an organization that advocates terrorism in
your name, you aren�t just a sitting duck, you�re a person with agency,�
he said. �You can say, �I disavow this.� These are Harvard students we�re
talking about. They need to be held to a higher standard.�

Bill Ackman, the hedge fund billionaire and Harvard alumnus, wrote on
social media that the names of students should be circulated, to avoid
�inadvertently� hiring them. His more than 800,000 followers boosted
Meyer�s website, and led dozens of chief executives to ask for the list,
Meyer said.

In another social media post, Ackman said he was �100% in support of free
speech.� But, he added, �one should be prepared to stand up and be
personally accountable for his or her views.�

The doxxing, however, has extended to family members.

�Every single member of my family has been contacted, including my younger
siblings,� said the student whose smiling face was on the truck.

https://news.yahoo.com/writing-anti-israel-letter-harvard-185148055.html