Clarification: This article has been updated from its original version to reflect that law students Danielle Mikaelian and Mohini Tangri did not at any time support the pro-Hamas letter.
(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Some leftist Harvard University students dialed back their support of an anti-Semitic letter after they realized that there were potential consequences to siding with Hamas terrorists who murdered soldiers, raped women and beheaded babies during an Oct. 7 massacre of innocent Israeli citizens.
On Tuesday, 17 Harvard groups joined around 500 faculty and staff and 3,000 others in signing a counter-statement attacking the other groups’ letter as “completely wrong and deeply offensive,” the Harvard Crimson reported.
Among the student organizations who disavowed the statement in support of Hamas were Harvard Ghungroo, the Harvard Undergraduate Nepali Student Association and Harvard College Act on a Dream.
Some of those who rescinded their support appeared to do so only after billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman called for Harvard to release the names of the students in these groups so that they wouldn’t be hired by Wall Street.
“If, in fact, their members support the letter they have released, the names of the signatories should be made public so their views are publicly known,” he wrote.
I have been asked by a number of CEOs if @harvard would release a list of the members of each of the Harvard organizations that have issued the letter assigning sole responsibility for Hamas’ heinous acts to Israel, so as to insure that none of us inadvertently hire any of their… https://t.co/7kzGOAGwp9
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) October 10, 2023
In addition to that, the leftist students also realized that they live in the real world on Wednesday when a “doxxing truck” drove around the campus with digital billboards that displayed the names and photos of students who signed a letter blaming Israel for Hamas’ violent attack, the Crimson reported.
The vehicle of Accuracy in Media, a nonprofit news watchdog that was behind the truck, also displayed the website HarvardHatesJews.com, which leads to a forum that encourages users to send an email to members of Harvard’s board of trustees.
“Tell them to take action against these despicable, hateful students,” the website said.
Aside from the truck, four websites listed the personal information of the students linked to the clubs that co-signed the letter, like full names, graduating years, past employment, social media profiles and hometowns. As of Wednesday morning, at least two of the sites were removed from the internet by Google for violating its terms of service.
On Wednesday, Harvard’s executive vice president Meredith Weenick also released a statement notifying its staff and students that the “Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) has stepped up its security presence on campus.”
Some of the students affiliated with the groups said that after going public to speak out against the letter they had, nonetheless, been swept up in the negative publicity surrounding it and were concerned for both their safety and reputations.
Law students Danielle Mikaelian and Mohini Tangri were among those who said they had unequivocally repudiated the hate speech, with Mikaelian resigning her position from one of the organizations in protest.
The two women reached out to Headline USA saying that their tweets condemning it had been misconstrued.
“I want to make it clear: I have never supported terrorism in any form or this statement,” Tangri wrote in an email to Headline USA. “Several people at Harvard were members of organizations that pushed the statement through without giving members a voice or a vote.”
Tangri went on to denounce the substance of the letter itself, as well as those who supported it.
“I also wanted to push back against the students who signed by making it clear that I did NOT support the disgusting letter—I publicly condemned Hamas and renounced the statement as being entirely unrepresentative of my beliefs,” she said.
“I also pushed one student organization to retract their signature, which they did with a formal, public apology for signing without consulting their membership,” she added. “The CEOs involved have supported these actions.”