Small plane hired to fly provocative banner over Harvard University campus

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    CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (WCVB) — A group claiming to represent Jewish students said they paid for a plane to fly over Harvard University’s campus in Cambridge trailing a banner with a provocative message about Antisemitism.

The small plane flew over the campus and was visible from the surrounding area around noon on Thursday. Behind the plane fluttered a Palestinian flag and the message, “Harvard Hates Jews.”

According to a message emailed to NewsCenter 5, the group — which claims to be behind the stunt — timed the flight to occur before the first night of Hanukkah and said additional flights would continue over “several days.”

The message also said that other Ivy League campuses will be targeted in the future.

Since the deadly Hamas attack on Oct. 7, which sparked Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas, numerous protests and demonstrations have been held on college campuses, including at Harvard.

Harvard is one of several colleges being investigated by the Department of Education over alleged incidents of antisemitism and Islamaphobia.

Thursday’s flight was visible from the surrounding area and, according to a message sent to parents by the Curley School in Boston’s Jamaica Plain, was seen by children during recess. The message, which was perceived as antisemitic, prompted the school to offer students a forum to discuss the inflammatory statement.

“As you know, we strive to communicate with one another in a caring, welcoming, and affirming way each day at the Curley School,” Principal Katie Grassa wrote in a statement. “Today, someone outside of our school affected our community in a very disturbing way.”

Records from FlightAware said the flight lasted around 2 hours and 48 minutes. It originated and returned to Rhode Island.

The true sponsor of the flight remains unclear. A student with Harvard Hillel said they believed it was paid for by an outside conservative group.

Harvard President Claudine Gay has faced significant backlash for her responses to the initial attack, a student group that blamed Israel and the university’s handling of subsequent protests and demonstrations. She was grilled by members of Congress earlier this week in Washington, D.C. and at least one member of the House committee has publicly called for Gay’s resignation.

Gay and the presidents of two other universities were repeatedly asked whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate each university’s code of conduct. Gay and Penn President Liz Magill both gave versions of a response that said the answer is dependent on individual context.

Gay said that when “speech crosses into conduct, that violates our policies.”

Her response was cited as a motivating factor by the student group that hired the plane.

“This rise of antisemitism has been either ignored or even endorsed by the universities’ leaderships,” the group said.

Their statement also included, “Jewish students nationwide felt threatened and abandoned by Gay’s lack of response.”

The group said they selected the inflammatory banner because it “reveals the painful truth behind the reality of this institution.”

White House spokesman Andrew Bates issued a statement Wednesday criticizing Gay, and the leaders of the other universities, for not going far enough to condemn antisemitism on campuses.

“It’s unbelievable that this needs to be said: calls for genocide are monstrous and antithetical to everything we represent as a country,” he said. “Any statements that advocate for the systematic murder of Jews are dangerous and revolting — and we should all stand firmly against them, on the side of human dignity and the most basic values that unite us as Americans.”

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