HOOP Holds ‘Die-In’ Outside Widener To Protest War in Gaza

More than 60 Harvard affiliates wearing masks gathered on the steps of Widener Library on Thursday for a pro-Palestine “die-in” to protest the rising Palestinian death toll in the ongoing Israel-Hamas War.

The protest — which was hosted by Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, an unrecognized pro-Palestine student group — was announced in a Wednesday Instagram post, which required attendees to wear masks during the event.

The masked protest in Harvard Yard follows Columbia University’s decision to ban masks “for the purpose of concealing one’s identity” after the Trump administration made the policy change a requirement to begin negotiations on restoring $400 million in federal funding to the university.

A spokesperson for HOOP wrote in a statement that “we asked that attendees wear masks today as a means of both increasing accessibility and protecting our community from heightened surveillance on our campus and across the country.”

Harvard Yard was closed to the public early Thursday morning and remained closed throughout the evening. A University spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on why entrance was limited to Harvard University ID holders, but Harvard frequently restricts access to the Yard before advertised protests.

During the demonstration, the protesters gathered in a circle before lying silently on the steps of Widener Library for 17 minutes as a recording of the names of Palestinians killed in the conflict was played over several handheld speakers.

After the audio concluded, HOOP organizer Violet T.M. Barron ’26 led the group in several chants, including “from the river to the sea” and “we will honor all our martyrs.”

She then delivered a speech to the group about the rising death toll from Israel’s airstrikes in Gaza. Israel and Hamas reached an agreement in January to implement a complete ceasefire in Gaza. Earlier this month, Israel launched extensive strikes in Gaza, shattering the agreement.

“We listened to hundreds of names. There are tens of thousands more we did not hear,” Barron said. “We want to make clear on our aim for a free and liberated Palestine — for Harvard to divest completely.”

In the Instagram post on Wednesday, HOOP leaders wrote that there “has never been a ‘ceasefire’ — not on January 19th and not on October 6th.”

Barron also called on Harvard to invest in academic studies of Palestine.

That wish, however, comes after Harvard’s School of Public Health paused its research partnership with Birzeit University in the West Bank. HSPH launched an internal review into Harvard’s François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights late last summer, and decided not to renew a memorandum of understanding that had expired between the FXB Center and Birzeit.

Thursday’s “die-in” also comes as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have ramped up arrests and deportation proceedings for international students with ties to pro-Palestine activity on college campuses.

Federal officers detained Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, on Tuesday near her home in Somerville before revoking her visa.

Ozturk, who penned a pro-Palestine op-ed in Tufts’s student newspaper last year, was accused of engaging in “activities in support of Hamas” by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson. The spokesperson did not provide further details about Ozturk’s alleged activities.

According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, at least 300 student visas have been revoked as of Thursday.

“Every time I find one of these lunatics I take away their visa,” Rubio told reporters at a news conference in Guyana. “Might be more than 300 at this point. Might be more. We do it every day.”

The HOOP spokesperson wrote that “as rising fascism and ICE abductions — including this week’s kidnapping of Rumeysa Ozturk — shift attention home, we must not misinterpret the criminalization of pro-Palestine advocacy as a mere crackdown on dissent.”

“Mass surveillance, detention, and the deportation of student organizers are all manifestations of Zionist aggression here — the same aggression that drives Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza,” they added.

Standing alongside Barron, another protester encouraged attendees to call a hotline operated by the Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts — an immigrant-led organization that uses the calls to alert nearby individuals of ICE activity — if they see federal agents on Harvard’s campus.

“There are forces at work that don’t want you or your comrades to speak out,” they said. “If you see ICE agents on campus or in your neighborhood, call the ICE hotline.”

—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.