Two Years of Genocide
UNDATED. After 78 continuous years of Nakba, the state of Israel continues to reproduce itself by systematic land dispossession and perpetual colonial violence. In the West Bank, Israeli settlers continue to violently depopulate and destroy villages in what the international law would soon recognize as an illegal occupation. According to the United Nations, 2022 is a “record year” for settler violence in the West Bank, with armed and masked settlers attacking children on their way to school and burning olive groves. For nearly two decades, Israel perpetuates a suffocating blockade of all air, land, and sea routes, crippling Gaza’s economy and generating widespread food insecurity and hospital shortages. Through severe segregation, a legal code that protects Jewish Israelis above all, and the deprivation of economic and social rights for Palestinians, Israel is imposing apartheid rule on Palestinians. Millions of Palestinians live in exile, most in cramped refugee camps, unable to return to their homes. There are more than 6 million Palestinians in global diaspora, still demanding and awaiting the fulfillment of their right of return after the 1948 Nakba.
If this sounds familiar, remind yourself that all of this occurred before October 7th and the onset of the escalated genocide in Gaza, which has lasted nearly two years and murdered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas launches an armed attack on Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis and taking 252 captive, according to Mossad. Despite strong evidence that the Israeli Occupation Forces have known of Hamas’s plans for at least a year, they have stationed their troops in other parts of the country, leaving the border with Gaza exposed.
Oct. 9, 2023. Israel announces a total blockade of Gaza’s water, food, and electricity. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declares, “We are fighting human animals and are fighting accordingly.”
Oct. 28, 2023. Israel begins a full-scale ground invasion of Gaza, one of the most densely populated places on earth, where two million Palestinians live.
Nov. 15, 2023. The Israeli Occupation Forces raid Al-Shifa Hospital. Around 15,000 displaced Palestinians are sheltering in the hospital, as well as 1,50o patients and 1,500 medical workers. Months later, in April, mass graves containing at least 381 martyrs begin to be uncovered.
Dec. 8, 2023. Israel has displaced approximately 1.5 million people, 85 percent of the population of Gaza.
Jan. 26, 2024: Following a case presented by South Africa, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rules that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that Israel is committing a “plausible genocide” in Gaza and orders Israel to take effective and immediate measures to refrain from violating the Genocide Convention and allow humanitarian assistance into Gaza. Israel does not comply.
Jan. 27, 2024. The U.S. cuts aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the only UN organization providing aid to Palestinian refugees.
Feb. 29, 2024. In the “Flour Massacre,” Israeli tanks open fire on a crowd of thousands of people waiting for aid trucks, killing at least 112 Palestinians and injuring 760.
May 21, 2024. UNRWA is forced to suspend food distribution in Rafah “due to lack of supplies and insecurity.”
May 26, 2024. In the “Tent Massacre,” the IOF bombs a refugee camp in Rafah — previously designated a “safe zone” — setting tents on fire, killing 45 Palestinians, and injuring over 200 others.
Sept. 17, 2024. Israel detonates pagers across Lebanon and Syria in a coordinated attack, killing 32 people and injuring 3,250 others.
Nov. 21, 2024. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and others in his cabinet.
Dec. 27, 2024. The IOF raids Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya — one of the only remaining hospitals in Gaza — and abducts Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who remains incarcerated to this day.
Jan. 15, 2025. Following negotiations in Qatar, the Zionist regime and Hamas reach a “ceasefire” deal, set to be implemented on Jan. 19. Days later, the IOF open heavy fire inside the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.
Feb. 23, 2025. Israel sends tanks into the West Bank for the first time in 20 years, and its ground assault displaces more than 40,000 Palestinians from refugee camps in the north.
March 2, 2025. Israel instates a total blockade to food and aid entering Gaza in an effort to intensify its deliberate starvation of Palestinians.
March 18, 2025: Israel bombs Gaza overnight, killing over 400 Palestinians and shattering the “ceasefire.”
May 4, 2025. Israel announces Operation Gideon’s Chariots, a plan to occupy and seize complete control of the entire area of Gaza.
May 20, 2025. The UN warns that 14,000 babies could die of starvation within 48 hours.
May 29, 2025. Today. There is no sign that the Zionist entity’s murderous campaign will stop. Yet we also know that Palestinian existence cannot be extinguished. The future is in our hands. Palestine will be free within our lifetime.
HARVARD TIMELINE
Oct. 8, 2023. The Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee releases a joint statement with Graduate Students for Palestine and cosigned by over 30 student groups, holding the “Israeli regime entirely responsible for unfolding violence.”
Oct. 12, 2023. The “doxxing truck” begins to circle Harvard Square, displaying the faces and names of students tied to groups that signed PSC’s statement. Former University President Claudine Gay condemns the “barbaric atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.”
Oct. 18, 2023. At a PSC protest, a counterprotestor steps over students lying down and records their faces. Two graduate students shield his camera with keffiyehs. In retaliation, Harvard evicts and fires one, and they are both dealt criminal charges.
Nov. 10, 2023. Gay issues a University-wide email condemning the phrase “from the river to the sea” as “imply[ing] the eradication of Jews from Israel.”
Nov. 16, 2o23. Jews for Palestine organizes a 24-hour occupation of University Hall to demand that the University call for a ceasefire. Nine students face disciplinary action for participation.
Apr. 5, 2024. Both Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Law School vote in nonbinding referendums to divest from companies complicit in the occupation of Palestine.
Apr. 24, 2024. The Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine coalition establishes the “Liberated Zone,” an encampment at the heart of the University. HOOP’s manifesto calls for Harvard to disclose and divest from its investments in Israeli apartheid and occupation.
May 18, 2024. College administrators prevent at least 15 seniors from graduating, suspend five students, and place at least 20 more on probation. Members of previous student movements faced minor discipline to no charges for similar forms of nonviolent protest.
May 23, 2024. Thousands of graduating students walk out of Commencement during then-Interim President Garber’s speech, in solidarity with Palestine and seniors whose degrees were withheld.
Jul. 10, 2024. Harvard appoints Jennifer O’Connor as Vice President and General Council. O’Connor previously worked at Northrop Grumman, a major arms supplier for the IOF.
Sept. 6, 2024. HOOP rallies outside of the Science Center while representatives meet with Alan Garber and the Harvard Management Company to propose a human rights requirement to endowment investment.
Oct. 15, 2024. The PSC hosts a name-writing event to honor children martyred in the genocide, after the University seized the original banners with names during the encampment.
Oct. 28, 2024. President Garber refuses to commit to adopting a human rights investment proposal. As justification for rejecting HOOP’s proposal, he asserts that adopting a human rights framework would lead to divestment from Israel.
Nov. 30, 2024. Garber dines in a secret meeting with Harvard’s wealthiest donors inside Widener Library. Students protest outside the dinner, reminding donors that Harvard’s endowment is invested in the death and starvation and people in Gaza.
Jan. 31, 2025. As a part of a legal settlement, Harvard adopts the International Holocaust Remembrance Association's definition of antisemitism into its disciplinary policy. By equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, Harvard enshrines its commitment to silencing pro-Palestine, anti-Zionist voices.
Mar. 6, 2025. Hundreds of students and community members protest former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett’s appearance at Harvard Business School. During his talk, Bennett jokes about giving pagers to protestors, alluding to Israel's pager attacks in Syria and Lebanon in Sept. 2024.
Mar. 13, 2025. Seventy-three percent of Harvard Law students vote to divest from Israel.
Mar. 27, 2025. The Harvard School of Public Health suspends its research partnership with Birzeit University, the largest institution in the West Bank, and cancels courses on Palestine Social Medicine.
Mar. 29, 2025. Interim Dean of Social Science David Cutler fires director Cemal Kafadar and associate director Rosie Bsheer from their posts at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
Mar. 31, 2025. President Garber announces Harvard's intention to comply with the federal government’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, an entity focused upon destroying all pro-Palestine speech on college campuses.
Apr. 2, 2025. Three hundred student protestors rally outside University Hall as professors convene inside the building for a monthly FAS meeting. A day later, the PSC is banned from hosting public events on campus until the end of June.
Apr. 3, 2025. In another concession to the Trump administration, Harvard Divinity School suspends the Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative. The Divinity School chooses not to renew associate director Hillary Rantisi’s contract.
Apr. 14, 2025. After weeks of heightened suppression of pro-Palestine organizing, Harvard claims to reject the Trump administration’s heightened demands.
Apr. 15, 2025. Former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan – the Kennedy School’s newly instated Kissinger Professor of Modern Statecraft and World Order — is met with protest at the Institute of Politics.
Apr. 16, 2025. President Joe Biden makes a surprise appearance at the Institute of Politics; outside the Kennedy School, students protest his continued support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Apr. 28, 2025. A state judge declares Elom Tettey-Tamaklo and Ibrahim I. Bharmal — the two graduate students charged with assault and battery, spuriously accused of using force against a counterprotestor — will not face a trial.
Apr. 29, 2025. The two University task forces on combating bias against Jewish, Israeli, Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian affiliates release their research reports.
May 29, 2025. While Harvard’s primary academic operations were on pause, its endowment continues to fund the genocide of Palestinians. As students, our ties to the University render us complicit. We will leverage these ties and refuse to cower in the face of disciplinary action and criminal charges. We’re working to remake this University, to force it to have a conscience and act upon it. We’re working for a free Palestine. Join us.