Today, the Harvard College Democrats voted to co-sponsor the Wall of Resistance, an art display that will be up in the Science Center Plaza from Tuesday, April 2nd to Saturday, April 6th.
Our mission as Harvard Dems is to promote progressive values on campus and beyond. Fulfilling that mission requires persistent and intentional honesty. We decided that it was better to have a debate than to not, to hold a democratic vote of our board than to not, and to engage on this issue than to not. When we are presented with challenging questions about justice, we will engage with them because we believe that we are better for it. That is our basic commitment as Democrats and one we will always honor with love and respect.
Our party is democratic precisely because it contains a range of views on Israel and Palestine and on every other issue. Our job as leaders is to allow all these views to hold space, and that’s why we allotted more time for board members to deliberate on this issue than we’re aware has ever been allotted on any other co-sponsorship ask we’ve received. In this case, 8 board members voted in favor of co-sponsorship and 3 voted against.
We decided to include the vote count in this statement to make it clear that, because the Democratic party includes a range of views, our board had varying opinions. And while the vote today reflects the majority opinion of our executive board, the complexity of this process reflects that there is not a consensus among Harvard Democrats on this issue.
We recognize that members of our community feel that their identities were at stake in the outcome of this decision and that either a co-sponsorship or no sponsorship would cause hurt.
Decisions like these require us to think deeply about what we stand for and the values we represent. Those same values call on us to continue fighting for a more just and equitable future. Going forward, we intend to do exactly that.
Yours,
Harvard College Democrats Executive Board