Harvard Law School ‘moves closer’ to divesting from Israel

Students at Harvard Law School have successfully passed a referendum urging the university to divest from Israel on Thursday, in the latest move by pro-Palestinian students at US universities protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza. 

The Law School’s resolution calls for Harvard to “divest from weapons, surveillance technology, and other companies aiding violations of international humanitarian law, including Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine”.

Nearly 2,000 students attend Harvard Law School, with 842 individuals participating in the vote, meaning that 73 percent of students voted yes in the referendum, the university’s newspaper, The Harvard Crimson said.

The university’s Palestine Solidarity Committee celebrated the move, calling it a landslide victory that occurred “despite federal crackdown and admin’s repression on student activism for Palestine”.

In a celebratory announcement, the group said: “Trump cannot repress the student movement for Palestine”, a statement that comes amid the US President’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests across US universities.

“The university must answer our call and divest from companies that profit from Palestinian annihilation,” it added.

Thursday night’s results mark the second time a Harvard student body has voted in favour of divesting from Israel. The call for divestment generally entails calling on institutions to cut economic and any other relevant ties with Israel as a form of protest against its occupation of the Palestinian territories, and more recently its military onslaught in Gaza which has killed over 61,000 Palestinians since 7 October, 2023.

In June last year, students at the Harvard School of Public Health voted to demand that Harvard divests from Israel, and governments at the Law School, Harvard Divinity School, and the Graduate School of Design have all made similar calls too.

The referendum was initially suggested in a petition by Law Students for a Free Palestine, which passed the 300-signature threshold needed to trigger a Student Government referendum in February, The Harvard Crimson said.

The vote was reportedly received negatively by the department itself, who criticised its “phrasing” and students’ decision to administer it independently from the HLS Dean of Students Office.

The Harvard Law School students had also asked for help from the administration to carry out the referendum, which was rejected by the Dean of Students, the Crimson said.

Harvard, like many US universities, was at the centre of a growing protest movement against Israel’s war in Gaza in spring last year, where students erected encampments on university campuses, occupied buildings, and staged frequent demonstrations.

An encampment was also erected on the prestigious university’s campus, which lead to discussions between staff and students addressing their concerns on the deadly war in Gaza.

The university, however, was the subject of controversy due to it response to pro-Palestine protests on its campus, which was ill-received by students. Last year, then-President Claudine Gay, resigned from the post following pressure from the Republican party and Israel over her handling of antisemitism on campus.

In January, the university came under fire for adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s definition of antisemitism, which has been criticised over he year for protecting Israel from legitimate concerns and criticisms. The IHRA’s definition is also the same used by Trump’s administration.