Harvard professor hosts Palestinian speaker for dialogue
Said talk necessary, hard for some to hear
CAMBRIDGE — Yes, some in the audience were offended by Dalal Iriqat, a Palestinian academic, when she spoke at the Harvard Kennedy School on Thursday. Tarek Masoud, the professor who invited Iriqat, acknowledged that some of her comments — she refused, for example, to hold Hamas responsible for the suffering in Gaza — were hard to hear.
But he said it was necessary, and just what he had in mind when he conceived the idea to host a series of dialogues featuring a variety of perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“My goal was to try to maximize the ratio of light to heat,” Masoud said. “The conversation was definitely difficult . . . . I do think that our students came away from [the conversation] knowing more about the conflict and the positions that are held by many Palestinians.”
Masoud, professor of democracy and governance at the Harvard Kennedy School, faced intense backlash last month from Jewish leaders and lawmakers who said the university had no business hosting Iriqat after her social media posts appeared to justify the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. She wrote, for example, that Oct. 7 represented “a normal human struggle 4 #Freedom.”
Masoud, who questioned Iriqat’s views of Oct. 7 and how a two-state solution could be achieved during the event, said in an interview later on Thursday that he was “reasonably confident and hopeful” the discussion was an opportunity for learning, and added he appreciated that Iriqat “did not deny the atrocities of Oct. 7.” Understanding the Palestinian perspective is critical for moving toward peace and a two-state solution, Masoud said.
Iriqat said in an interview Thursday she felt a responsibility to engage in public conversation and thought the discussion went well. She “expected worse” after the media coverage last month.
She added that she was not “here to defend Hamas or to speak on behalf of Hamas,” and she stands against violence “against anybody.”
“I am here to speak on behalf of my people,” Iriqat said. “My mission has nothing to do with Hamas. I
wanted to get people to think about the injustices of the Palestinian people due to military occupation.”
The Kennedy School last month published a statement distancing itself from Masoud’s Middle East dialogue series amid the backlash.
“Dean Douglas Elmendorf personally finds abhorrent the comments by Dalal Saeb Iriqat quoted in the press that justify and normalize the horrific terrorist attack by Hamas,” the statement said.
A spokesperson for the Kennedy School said Elmendorf was unable to attend Thursday’s event, which drew a crowd of about 140 students, staff and faculty, because of overseas travel.
Masoud and Iriqat agreed to discuss her controversial social media posts during the dialogue. Iriqat said that she did not intend to justify the violence on Oct. 7, which included kidnappings of children and elderly, beheadings, and massacres of civilians, but meant to place the attack in the context of a decadeslong conflict. She was intensely critical of Israel throughout the conversation, saying the “settlercolonial project started 76 years ago.” Some regard that type of statement as antisemitic because it fails to acknowledge the historical ties the Jewish people have to the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
Iriqat spoke about the oppression Palestinian civilians experience under the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, and the impacts of a blockade of the Gaza Strip enforced by Egypt and Israel since Hamas took control of the territory in 2007, which has throttled the economy and made it difficult to access essential goods, such as medical equipment.
Andrew March, a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, attended the event, which he described as a “vital and helpful conversation.”
“It’s good to have a civil conversation, and extremely important for non-Arabs to hear directly from Palestinians,” March said.
For months now, American colleges and universities have been roiled by tensions related to the war in Gaza. Last month’s dustup over Iriqat’s invitation to Harvard was viewed by many as a test case for whether universities are capable of hosting civil and educational discussions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict following the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust, and amid the ongoing war in Gaza that has killed more than 30,000 people.
Masoud said he approached the conversation with Iriqat carefully, given the concerns about rising antisemitism on Harvard’s campus.
“Antisemitism is a serious problem, and I don’t want to be seen as contributing to antisemitism on our campus,” Masoud said. “I thought that her comments were very reflective of the mainstream Palestinian frustration with the Netanyahu government and with their lack of freedom and self determination.”
There were moments during the event that underscored the fraught nature of the conversation. Masoud fielded questions from audience members, including from students who submitted questions ahead of time. An Israeli in the audience asked Iriqat whether Palestinian leaders should reject the approach of Hamas and offer a “more constructive approach,” to achieving a two-state solution.
One student Masoud called on said that he had decided not to ask his question because he felt that Iriqat lacked integrity.
“I wish that he had asked his question, or asked a question that was pointed and explained why he thought she lacked integrity,” Masoud said. “What was it that she said that he felt was beyond the pale? I think that was a missed opportunity.”
Near the end of the discussion, Masoud started sensing frustration from audience members who were eager for the chance to pose a question to Iriqat. Some people started talking out of turn.
“They want to kill us all,” one audience member said.
“Everybody, please,” Masoud said. “Please help me, because I’ve been trying to tell the world that we can have these conversations at Harvard like adults, and we’re gonna do it.”