‘An Inflection Point’: Speakers Commend Encampment Protesters at Celebration for Arab Harvard Grads

Harvard affiliates honored Arab graduates — as well as 13 seniors who may not graduate at Commencement for their participation in the encampment of Harvard Yard — at a University-wide celebration on Monday afternoon.

More than 100 graduates and their families gathered in Lowell Lecture Hall for the celebration, which was organized by the Harvard Arab Alumni Association and the Harvard Society of Arab Students with support from the Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging.

The graduates were joined by eight of the 13 seniors suspended or placed on probation by the Harvard College Administrative Board for participating in the 20-day encampment which ended last week. Two other seniors, originally set to graduate in December, were also disciplined by the Ad Board.

The seniors were awarded honorary certificates and received standing ovations as they walked the graduation stage at the ceremony.

Israa M. Alzamli, Tala Alfoqaha, and Lea H. Kayali — Palestinian-American Harvard Law School graduates and organizers with Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, the coalition that staged the encampment — addressed the students and their families in a joint speech.

Kayali said the encampment — which HOOP protesters mounted on April 24 — was “a shift” and “an inflection point” in the semester.

“Just when it felt like our movement had petered out, when public outrage had quieted, the roaring cry of the student intifada shook this University right side up,” Kayali said.

Alzamli commended the student protesters who participated in the encampment for their solidarity with the pro-Palestine movement.

“Every one of these 15 students, every suspended student, every discipline student has exhibited more clarity, more moral courage, more bravery than any Harvard administrator, any Harvard dean, any Harvard president ever could,” she said.

Alfoqaha condemned the “normalization of Zionism” and the “deafening silence” from some Arab students who distanced themselves from the pro-Palestine movement.

“No reflection on the pain of this year is complete without reflection on the pain inflicted by our own community,” she said. “In the earliest days of the genocide, as buses bearing my name and face roamed campus, as Harvard administrators and U.S. politicians drummed up the hysteria that legitimized the mass elimination campaign we see today, I felt most abandoned by some of my Arab siblings.”

University spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment on the criticisms.

Outgoing SAS President Jana Amin ’25 recalled the solidarity among Arab students following a series of global news and disasters — including the ongoing war in Sudan, the September earthquake in Morocco, the September flood in Libya, and the ongoing war in Gaza.

Amin said there was a “sense of fear” and a “sense of uncertainty” among Arab students, “not knowing if we should continue to speak out” when faced with doxxing attacks in the aftermath of Oct. 7.

Syd D. Sanders ’24 embraces another student at the affinity celebration for Arab graduates. Sanders was among eight seniors honored at the celebration after they were disciplined by the Harvard College Administrative Board. By Emily T. Schwartz

“It is a privilege and honor to be sitting here at Harvard and know that advocates for Palestine on campus have not let the doxxing or the intimidation or the bias shut them down,” she said.

Amin added that watching her peers organize vigils, rallies, and protests to support Palestine reminded her of “what can happen when this community, but also the larger community of pro-Palestine advocates on campus, come together.”

Before presenting certificates to graduates, organizers presented honorary certificates to several of the disciplined seniors, whom they called individually to the stage to announce their graduation.

The seniors were among dozens of undergraduates disciplined by the Ad Board for their involvement in the encampment.

Though the disciplinary measures would have prevented 13 seniors from graduating at Thursday’s Commencement ceremonies, members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted in a Monday meeting to add their names back to the list of degrees recommended for conferral — a move that leaves the status of their graduation uncertain.

Several students and families in attendance donned keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian scarves.

The ceremony included remarks from a member of HAAA and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Sherri A. Charleston, who urged graduates to stay optimistic amid “immense sadness” and “immense grief.” Five Arab graduates also received prizes at the end of the ceremony for having “exceptionally contributed to student life.”

The Arab affinity celebration is a part of a series of ceremonies honoring graduates in the days leading up to Commencement. The EDIB office also organized Monday ceremonies for graduates with disabilities, graduates from Indigenous, First-Generation, Low-Income, and Asian-American, Pacific Islander, and Desi-American backgrounds, and an inaugural ceremony for Jewish graduates.

Tuesday’s ceremonies celebrated Latinx, Black, BGLTQ graduates and an inaugural celebration of Veteran graduates.

—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 at @joycekim324.