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Harvard University and its interim president have condemned an image circulated on social media by pro-Palestinian campus groups, prompting the groups to remove and apologize for the posting.<\/p>\n
The cartoon, shared on Instagram accounts belonging to the Harvard Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine group, the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and the African American Resistance Organization, shows a hand etched with the star of David and a dollar sign holding nooses around the necks of what appears to be boxer Muhammad Ali and Gamal Abdel Nasser, who was a longtime president of Egypt.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs members of an academic community, we can and we will disagree, sometimes vehemently, on matters of public concern and controversy, including hotly contested issues relating to the war in Israel and Gaza, and the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict,\u201d said Alan Garber, Harvard\u2019s interim president, in a statement<\/a> sent Tuesday evening. \u201cBut it is grossly irresponsible and profoundly offensive when that disagreement devolves into forms of expression that demonize individuals because of their religion, race, nationality, or other aspects of their identity.\u201d<\/p>\n The images were initially shared by a 1960s civil rights group. The three groups that circulated the image issued their own statements criticizing it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe inclusion of the offensive caricature was an unprompted, painful error \u2013 a combination of ignorance and inadequate oversight,\u201d said a joint statement<\/a> on Instagram from the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and the African American Resistance Organization.<\/p>\n The groups said they had removed the image, but \u201cit should never have been published to begin with. We wholeheartedly apologize for the immense harm we caused.\u201d<\/p>\n Another group that had circulated the image, the Harvard Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine, also apologized<\/a> for circulating the image, which it termed \u201cantiquated\u201d and \u201coffensive.\u201d<\/p>\n