An Ivy League institution has scheduled a pro-Hamas advocate to talk on campus.

Harvard University has invited author Tareq Baconi to speak in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The event, entitled “Gaza as Epicenter: An Alternative Reading,” is scheduled for April 18 and will be hosted by Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Four days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack against Israel, Baconi interviewed with Jewish Currents, stating that the motivation for Hamas’ attacks was not anti-Semitism but rather a drive for liberation.

He noted that it was important to “push back against any effort to try to suggest this was driven by antisemitism, because doing that also completely erases any motivation that imprisoned people might have in breaking out of their prison.” 

Baconi stated that the attack was not “driven by hatred and bloodlust,” but rather “by a regime of oppression that has held 2 million Palestinians captive for 16 years and was ready to continue to do that indefinitely.”