Marcus Montague-Mfuni
Overview
Marcus Montague-Mfuni [Marcus B. Montague-Mfuni] served on the Harvard Crimson (the Crimson) editorial board when it endorsed the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and promoted the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Harvard University (Harvard) in 2022.As of May 2023, Montague-Mfuni’s LinkedIn page said Montague-Mfuni had been the Crimson chair of diversity and inclusion from January 2021 to December 2022. The LinkedIn page also said Montague-Mfuni had held various other positions at the Crimson between December 2019 and December 2022.
Also as of May 2023, Montague-Mfuni’s LinkedIn said Montague-Mfuni was an associate of diversity and inclusion at the Harvard College Undergraduate Research Association (HCURA) from August 2020 to May 2021.
As of May 2023, Montague-Mfuni’s LinkedIn said Montague-Mfuni was pursuing a bachelor’s degree in psychology and computer science from Harvard, slated to graduate in 2023.
Also of May 2023, Montague-Mfuni reportedly intended “to eventually pursue a Ph.D. in social psychology and continue researching human behavior.”
In November 2022, Montague-Mfuni was a recipient of the 2023 South African Rhodes Scholarship award.
As of May 2023, Montague-Mfuni’s LinkedIn said Montague-Mfuni was located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Harvard Crimson Editorial Board Endorses BDS
On April 29, 2022, while Montague-Mfuni was on the Crimson editorial board, the board published a staff editorial titled: “In Support of Boycott, Divest, Sanctions and a Free Palestine.”The editorial said: “As a board, we are proud to finally lend our support to both Palestinian liberation and BDS — and we call on everyone to do the same.”
The editorial also showed support for Harvard PSC and its display which demonized Israel’s security barrier and supported BDS. The display included multiple panels and was erected during Harvard PSC’s Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), a week of SJP events common at American universities.
Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.
One panel on the display, which was called the “Wall of Resistance,” featured text that said [slide 2]: “Zionism is Racism Settler Colonialism White Supremacy Apartheid.” Another panel showed [slide 1] support for the “Right of Return.”
The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. International law mandates no absolute right of return and UN Resolution 194, which defined principles for “refugees wishing to return to their homes,” was unanimously rejected by Arab nations following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
The same panel featured a black and white painting of Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians next to the security barrier and behind tall fencing. Critics of the display compared it to photos from a “concentration camp” during the Holocaust.
The editorial also said that “Israeli soldiers have killed nearly 50 Palestinians, including eight children, this year alone.” At the end of March and beginning of April 2022, Palestinian terrorists killed 14 Israelis in a number of attacks where the terrorists were also killed.
The editorial was condemned by pro-Israel student groups, Harvard faculty, former Harvard Crimson editors and alumni.
During a May 3, 2022 faculty meeting, then-Harvard President Lawrence S. Bacow declined to comment on the editorial, but said: “Any suggestion of targeting or boycotting a particular group because of disagreements over the policies pursued by their governments is antithetical to what we stand for as a university.” Bacow also stated: “I think academic boycotts have absolutely no place at Harvard, regardless of who they target.”
In a November 2022 report released by the Amcha Initiative, Harvard ranked [p. 20] first in “Highest Incidence of Overall Threats to Jewish Identity” for the 2021-2022 academic year.
BDS
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.
One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”
Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”
In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.
BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.
The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.
Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.
BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.
SJP
SJP is a student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses.
The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian. Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group. In 2004, Bazian called for “intifada” in America.
SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks, often in collaboration with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Muslim Students Association (MSA) campus chapters.
SJP has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses. Chapters have initiated dozens of BDS resolutions in student governments, which have been proposed on or around Jewish holidays, a time when many Jewish students are off-campus.
SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, disrupted pro-Israel campus events and demonized pro-Israel campus organizations.
Chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and whitewashed terrorism.
PSC (SJP) Harvard
In March 2013, PSC initiated Israel Apartheid Week on Harvard’s campus by plastering mock eviction notices on dorm room doors — informing students that their rooms were "scheduled for demolition in the next three days."
