Harvard’s Secret Israel Archive: Preparing for a Future without the State

*Harvard’s Secret Israel Archive: Preparing for a Future without the State?*

Haaretz has revealed a new controversial move by Harvard University: The creation of a secret archive containing nearly one million items related to the culture, history, and social life of Israel.

According to the project leaders, the goal is to preserve Israel’s cultural heritage inside a politically stable environment.

Critics, however, are asking a simple but sharp question: Why should the United States take responsibility for safeguarding the cultural memory of another region?

Philosophically, the team behind the project describes it as an “alternative memory system,” a structure separate from Israeli state institutions, which they say are vulnerable to threats like flooding, fires, decay, and poor maintenance.

But it’s the phrase “politically stable environment” that has ignited the real controversy.

Many observers argue that Harvard’s project quietly signals a deeper truth: a growing belief among some in the West that Israel’s future is deeply uncertain.

A manufactured colonial state, they say, is now seen even by its builders as entering a period of potential collapse.