This week, Garber’s position was criticized by a group of pro-Palestinian students at the country’s oldest and most prestigious university.

“His response illustrates the lack of outlets for genuine community engagement with the foundation, while also demonstrating a troubling denial of established and widely accepted facts about the current crisis in Palestine,” said a student delegate for Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine. in a press release.

In the statement, the student group said it presented two proposals during a September meeting with Harvard leaders in which they discussed the school’s goals. An endowment of 53 billion dollars.

One of the measures called for “the adoption of a human rights investment policy statement,” which would “specifically outline Harvard’s commitments to integrating human rights into the Harvard portfolio.” ‘HMC investment’. The second called for the appointment of a task force to review HMC’s portfolio for any investments that might violate Harvard’s commitment to human rights, according to HOOP.

“Both proposals draw on decades of responsible institutional investment practices and were developed in dialogue with industry professionals,” reads the HOOP press release.

The latest clash between HOOP and Garber comes after a tumultuous year at Harvard, with the war in Gaza at the center of conflicts on campus.

On October 7 last year, Hamas militants and their collaborators stormed into southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped another 250. Israel’s campaign of military retaliation in Gaza, which has now killed more than 42,000 people and entangled Lebanon and Iran, began shortly thereafter and sparked widespread protests on the Harvard campus. Some viewed the protests as containing anti-Semitic elements.

Two Harvard reports released this summer found that anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian prejudice had increased on campuses since the war began.

Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian student activists at the Ivy League school have had their personal information posted onlinereceived threats and lost job offers.

Earlier this month, a dozen Harvard faculty and staff gathered Friday outside a campus library to protest disciplinary actions taken against pro-Palestinian student protesters. Students held a rather quiet “study” at Harvard Yard’s Widener Library to protest the Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

The library protest was one of the first tests of a set of new or newly enforced rules promulgated by Harvard over the summer. The rules were part of the university’s efforts to avoid unrest over the war between Israel and Hamas that disrupted much of the final academic year and culminated in a weeklong encampment at Harvard Yard.

Congressional Republicans have launched investigations into Harvard and other universities’ responses to anti-Semitism and have pressured administrators to crack down on pro-Palestinian activism.

In recent weeks, on the anniversary of the October 7 attack, some pro-Palestinian academic groups have vowed to “step up” their tactics. On the night of October 7-8, an unidentified person broke the windows of University Hall and splashed red paint on the statue of John Harvard. Harvard police said the incident remains under investigation.

In addition, the police are investigating after several “religiously threatening” stickers with anti-Semitic symbols were plastered around Harvard Square, officials said.

The stickers were placed on light poles in the Charles River area and reported to Harvard University police earlier this month. Officers searched the area but were unable to find the person responsible.

The stickers showed an Israeli flag with the Star of David replaced by a swastika, in an apparent comparison between Israel and Nazi Germany, as well as the phrase “Stop financing Israeli terrorism,” according to photos obtained by Harvard Crimsona student newspaper.

An assault case based on a confrontation between pro-Palestinian Harvard graduate students and an Israeli Harvard Business School student is perhaps typical of the intractable nature of campus division. The case has pitted investigators against each other and attracted the attention of the FBI.

At the beginning of January, Claudine Gay, Harvard’s first black president has resignedafter his brief tenure was derailed by controversies related to the war between Israel and Hamas, anti-Semitism on campus and allegations of plagiarism in his academic works.

During the summerHarvard announced Garber, who over the past year has been credited with ending the three-week student protest encampment at Harvard. without police raidwould remain president for another three years.

Globe staff Hilary Burns, Mike Damiano, Travis Andersen and Camilo Fonseca contributed.

Danny McDonald can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him @Danny__McDonald.