Harvard Divinity School students suspended from campus library for pro-Palestinian ‘pray-in’

Some Harvard Divinity School students were recently given a two-week suspension from a campus library after holding a “pray-in” demonstration there in solidarity with Palestinians during the ongoing war between Israel and Hamasaccording to published reports.

Divinity School Dean Marla F. Frederick confirmed the suspensions in a message to the school community on Monday a report in the Harvard Crimsonthe university’s student newspaper.

“At HDS we honor the importance of prayer and what it means to so many. And, as a colleague recently reminded us, ‘prayer is protest,’” Frederick wrote, according to the Crimson. “In itself, advocating the cause of people under duress – whether in Israel, Gaza or other parts of the world – is noble.”

But the prayer in the Divinity School library violated university rules that prohibit demonstrations in libraries, the Crimson reported.

“These are the rules we currently have and as such we must enforce them,” Frederick wrote, according to the Crimson, which did not specify when the prayers took place or how many students were penalized.

Spokespeople for the Divinity School did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last month, 25 Harvard faculty members were suspended from the main campus library after them organized a demonstration There, he criticized the college’s decision to ban more than a dozen pro-Palestinian students from the building for two weeks for holding a nonviolent protest.

Also last month, Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, a student advocacy group, released a statement saying that more than sixty law students who had a study-in at the Langdell Library had also lost their library privileges.

“A gathering of people displaying signs transforms a reading room from a place for individual learning and reflection into a forum for public statements,” wrote Harvard librarian Martha Whitehead in an essay published last month on a university website.

Whitehead warned that if “our library spaces become a space for protest and demonstration – silent or otherwise, and whatever the message – they will be distracted from their vital role as places for learning and research.”

Stephanie L. Tabashneck, a Divinity School student who helped organize the bid-in, told the Crimson that there is “a serious tension between the ideals HDS claims to uphold and the consequences they impose on students who live these ideals. .”

During the 45-minute demonstration, students prayed over religious texts, including the Koran, Torah and Bible, the Crimson reported.

“Divinity School students gathered peacefully in the library and prayed, and the idea that prayer would be grounds for sanctions is contrary to democracy and contrary to the values ​​of the Divinity School,” Tabashneck told the Crimson.

She did not immediately respond to a Globe request for comment.

This report uses material from previous Globe stories. This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.

Travis Andersen can be reached at [email protected].