Harvard has become the poster child for American culture wars in the 11 days since Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel. Here's what's happened.

• Harvard University has become a flashpoint in the intergenerational divide on the Israel-Hamas war.
• That's after student groups signed a statement that Israel was "entirely responsible" for attacks.

In the 11 days since Palestinian militant group Hamas launched its terrorist attack on Israel, Harvard University has become a flashpoint for intergenerational tensions about the war — and the broader culture war around campus free speech.

It began when student groups at Harvard University signed a statement that opened with the following: "We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence." The statement did not condemn Hamas.

Backlash from wealthy Harvard alumni and donors has been swift. Some firms rescinded employment offers to students identified as being associated with the statement. Similar incidents are taking place at other colleges.

The flare-up reflects the tension for elite colleges as a bastion for radical campus politics, and their reliance on wealthy, powerful alumni who might hold different views. As Insider has previously reported, the views of younger Democrats and Republicans have begun to skew less sympathetic to Israel.

Here's what's happened so far.

Hamas launches terrorist attacks on Israel

Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a series of terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, with Israel retaliating. As of Tuesday, about 1,300 people have been killed and more than 4,200 injured in Israel, the UN says, citing Israeli officials. About 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and 12,500 injured in Gaza, according to the UN, citing Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

Harvard students blame Israel in a statement

A collection of student groups that referred to themselves as "Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups" released a joint statement on October 8 blaming Israel for the attacks by Hamas.

The statement said the students "hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence" and added "the apartheid regime is the only one to blame" for the attacks.

"We call on the Harvard community to take action to stop the ongoing annihilation of Palestinians," the statement said.

The statement was written by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and originally signed by more than 30 other student groups.

No individual student was named as a signatory.

The statement rapidly spreads

The statement was shared on social media and quickly spread beyond campus, provoking angry responses from university alumni, politicians, and business leaders.

US political scientist and author Ian Bremmer posted a copy of the statement and its signatories on X on October 8 to his more than 700,000 followers.

"Can't imagine who would want to identify with such a group," Bremmer wrote. "Harvard parents—talk to your educated kids about this."

Political alumni criticize the statement

Broader backlash to the statement began.

On October 9, former Harvard President and ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers posted on X that in his nearly 50 years of being affiliated with Harvard, "I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today."

"The silence from Harvard's leadership, so far, coupled with a vocal and widely reported student groups' statement blaming Israel solely, has allowed Harvard to appear at best neutral towards acts of terror against the Jewish state of Israel," Summers wrote.

Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, a Harvard alum, said that he was "embarrassed" by the university and that the leadership's silence counted as "complicity."

"What's happening at Harvard right now is intellectually weak and morally repugnant," Moulton wrote.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, also a Harvard alum, accused the student groups who signed the statement of "blazing hatred & antisemitism" that was "utterly blinding."

"These hateful Harvard students are the future leaders of our society," Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York wrote on X. "May God Help Us."

Groups affiliated with the university also condemned the statement. Harvard Hillel, a center for Jewish students, said Jewish people had experienced "hatred and anti-Semitism" on campus since the attacks started and demanded "accountability" for the groups that had signed the statement. The center also criticized attempts to identify individual members of the co-signing groups.

The original group that authored the statement, the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and Graduate Students for Palestine said it had been "flooded with racist hate speech and death threats," and that it was forced to postpone a vigil.

Bill Ackman says Harvard should release students' names

On October 10, billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman escalated the backlash by calling on Harvard to identify student members of the co-signing student groups so companies don't "inadvertently" hire them.

"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 members," he wrote.

Ackman's post on X, which has more than 70,000 likes, triggered a broader debate as to whether the identities of the students should be revealed.

Other CEOs and investors have also said they want a list of the students' names so they can blacklist them.

A truck doxxing students drives around campus

A truck drove through Harvard's campus on October 11 featuring a digital billboard claiming to show faces and names of students associated with the letter, labeling them as "Harvard's leading antisemites," according to The Harvard Crimson and pictures posted on social media. Conservative group Accuracy in Media told The Harvard Crimson that it was behind the stunt.

According to the Crimson, some websites released lists of students, claiming they were members of the groups that signed the letter.

Without explicitly mentioning the truck, Meredith Weenick, Harvard's executive vice president, released a statement later that day saying that the Harvard University Police Department had stepped up its security presence on campus and was monitoring online activity.

Weenick also shared details about resources available to students concerned about their safety and said that the university didn't "condone or ignore" intimidation, threats, and harassment.

Business leaders cut ties with Harvard

Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer, who owns Quantum Pacific Group, and his wife Batia stepped down from their positions on the executive board of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. They also withdrew a multimillion-dollar donation that they planned to make, The Marker reported on October 12.

"Unfortunately, our faith in the University's leadership has been broken," the Ofers said in a statement sent to multiple publications including CNN on October 13.

Summers thinks the backlash has gone too far

Summers, the former Harvard president, told Bloomberg on October 11 that he thought Ackman was "getting a bit carried away" when demanding the university release students' names.

He said it was "the stuff of Joe McCarthy, not the stuff of strong business organizations or universities like Harvard," referring to the former US senator.

"I don't think this is a time for individual vilification," Summers added.

Harvard's president condemns the attacks, defends free speech

Harvard's leadership team issued its first statement about the conflict on October 9, saying that it was "heartbroken" and would offer resources to support students and staff.

The next day, after the student groups' letter grew traction, Harvard president Claudine Gay issued an individual statement in which she called the attacks on Israel "abhorrent."

"While our students have the right to speak for themselves, no student group — not even 30 student groups — speaks for Harvard University or its leadership," she said.

But controversy continued to mount, culminating in Gay releasing a video on October 12 titled "Our choices," in which she said that the university rejects terrorism. But she said that Harvard also rejects harassment and intimidation based on people's beliefs and "embraces" a commitment to free expression, including "views that many of us find objectionable, even outrageous."

"We do not punish or sanction people for expressing such views," Gay said. "But that is a far cry from endorsing them."

Some student groups backtrack

Some student groups that co-signed the original statement have since withdrawn their signatures. The Harvard Undergraduate Nepali Student Association said on October 11 it regretted that its signing of the statement "has been interpreted as a tacit support for the recent violent attacks in Israel."

Harvard Act on a Dream, an immigrant-rights advocacy group, told The Harvard Crimson its signing was "a result of miscommunication and a lack of due diligence in sharing the statement with the entirety of the board."

The statement was amended to remove the names of its signatories, and has since been deleted, though it's still visible on the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee's Instagram account.

Students hold vigils and rallies on campus

The Harvard Crimson reported that more than 1,000 people gathered in the historic Harvard Yard on October 14 for a rally in which they demonstrated against Israel's counter-attacks and accused the university of not doing enough to support Palestinian students.

The following day, another group gathered for a campus vigil in solidarity with Israel with speeches, songs, and chants, The Harvard Crimson reported.

Campus feels tense, students say

Harvard students told Insider that the conflict in the Middle East and the outrage over the student groups' statement were playing out on campus. One graduate student said that he hadn't expected to see so much backlash from business leaders.

Some students said that this could ultimately have an impact on student speech, with concerns that voicing their opinions could impact their job prospects.

Rep. Elise Stefanik calls for Harvard's president to resign

A Harvard alum and New York Republican is now calling for Gay to step down as the university's president.

New York Rep. Elise Stefanik posted on X that Gay "should immediately resign for refusing to condemn antisemitism." The university was continuing to "disgrace itself on the global stage," she said.

Other colleges see similar flare-ups

The heated debate over how people should respond to the violence spread to other colleges.

Marc Rowan, the CEO of Apollo Global Management, called for the president and board chair at the University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater, to step down and urged other alumni to cut their donations after the university, he claimed, didn't take a strong enough stance against antisemitism. Jon Huntsman Jr., the former governor of Utah, halted the Huntsman Foundation's donations to the university over its response to Hamas' attacks.

"I want to leave no doubt about where I stand," Elizabeth Magill, the university's president, said in an email to the university community. "I, and this University, are horrified by and condemn Hamas's terrorist assault on Israel and their violent atrocities against civilians."

Thousands of people have signed a petition demanding a Columbia professor be removed from his post after he referred to Hamas' attacks as "awesome" in an article.

Companies have pulled job offers

The law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell confirmed to Insider on October 17 that it had rescinded job offers to three students from Columbia University and Harvard University due to their alleged involvement in student organizations which issued statements on the Israel-Hamas war.

And law firm Winston & Strawn withdrew its job offer to a New York University law student for publishing comments "profoundly in conflict" with the firm's values. The student appeared to be the president of the NYU Student Bar Association, who had published a statement in the Association's newsletter saying that "Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life."