About 200 people protested the appearance of former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett at a Harvard Business School event Thursday in a demonstration that began at John F. Kennedy Memorial Park and ended across the Charles River on the business school campus. The demonstrators said Bennett, one of numerous Israel legislators who founded the New Right party and headed the government from 2021 to 2022, had said he had “no problem” killing Arabs and had vowed to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The demonstration was organized by Harvard Out of Palestine and supported by others, including Jewish Voice for Peace. Evan MacKay, the Harvard graduate student activist who came within 41 votes of beating veteran state Rep. Marjorie Decker in a primary last year, also urged people to attend to “make it clear that we do not stand for whitewashing over the actions of the state of Israel or Naftali Bennett.”
It was an echo of the rallies and camps set up over Middle East violence last spring, sometimes drawing several hundred people on conflicting sides who had to be separated by police and physical barricades.
Thursday, about six counterprotesters led by two women from Mothers Against Antisemitism watched the demonstrators in JFK Park. One of the women said the demonstrators were equivalent to Hamas terrorists and said Israelis were not “anti-Arab.”
The woman later walked into the midst of the protesters carrying a sign reading “Hamas Go Home” and chanting “rape, murder” as the demonstrators shouted “Free, free Palestine.” At one point a pro-Palestinian demonstrator carrying a sign saying “Israel Where is Your Humanity” stepped forward to stand within 2 feet of the counterprotester. The two women faced each other with their signs for about 10 minutes. The chants of the protesters drowned out the counterprotester; there was no violence.
At about 4:40 p.m. the demonstrators marched across the Charles River onto North Harvard Street, which borders the business school campus. Entrances to the campus were barricaded and security officers stood nearby. A guard said the campus had been closed to all but Harvard affiliates because of the demonstration.
Pelted by a heavy rain, the marchers reached Western Avenue and circled back through a business school parking lot, reaching the building where Bennett was believed to be speaking. Metal barricades barred the entrance.
The protesters stood in front of the barriers for about an hour while the rain continued and speakers condemned Israel, Bennett, Harvard and Zionism. Guards in uniforms and men in suits watched outside the building and people could be seen inside, looking out. The protest ended peacefully with a leader congratulating participants for “coming out” to show that students would not accept the invitation to Bennett.
In announcing the demonstration, protesters singled out a quotation from Bennett: “I’ve killed lots of Arabs in my life, and there’s no problem with that.” Bennett made the statement in 2013, according to news reports; after criticism he denied saying it, asserting that he had actually said that terrorists should be killed if they were a threat to Israeli soldiers.
A Harvard Business School student club, Harvard Israel Business Club, invited Bennett to a talk billed “From the Boardroom to the World Stage.” It was to be moderated by Harvard professor of business administration Paul A. Gompers.
Bennett spoke at Columbia University on Tuesday, also sparking a student protest.
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