When the campus clamor for the war in Gaza has not yet died down, despite the eviction of the pro-Palestinian camps and the muted celebration of the graduation ceremonies for fear of incidents, the conclusions of an investigation by the Education Committee of the House of Representatives can revive the heated debate over anti-Semitism on American universities. The report blames Harvard University, the country’s oldest, for a slow response to allegedly hostile messages against Jewish students. Harvard also reportedly ignored the recommendations of the advisory group it created specifically to address the increase in such messages on its campus. The controversy cost Claudine Gay the rectorship, after weeks of pressure from politicians and donors. Advance in an exclusive by the newspaper The Wall Street Journal—clearly pro-Israel in line— the report is scheduled to be published this Thursday by the Committee, in Republican hands.
“Former Chancellor Gay and the leadership of Harvard propped up the university’s Advisory Group on Anti-Semitism, all for show,” the committee’s president, Republican Virginia Foxx, stated in a statement, who at the first hearing, last December, attacked viciously against the rectors of Harvard, Pennsylvania and MIT. The second soon resigned, while Gay, the first African-American president of the century-old Harvard, held out for a few more weeks, until she resigned in January.
Following the Hamas attack on October 7, which killed some 1,200 Israelis and sparked the war in Gaza, the Harvard University Palestine Solidarity Committee published a statement, signed by more than 30 student organizations on campus, in which presented “the Israeli regime as solely responsible for all the violence displayed,” the newspaper recalls. Similar condemnations were published on many other campuses in the United States. The alleged lukewarmness of the academic authorities—especially at Ivy League universities, where the country’s future elites are trained—was the subject of criticism from prominent members of the university. Jewish community and, especially, large donors, who threatened to withdraw their aid. The responses of the three rectors to the interrogation of the congressmen were considered “insufficient” by the Republican majority of the committee, which also subsequently called the rector of Columbia, Nemat Shafik, to testify.
The conclusions establish that Harvard did not investigate or sanction alleged acts of anti-Semitism against Jews, nor acts of harassment. The report cites a senior student wearing a kippah who was spat on by others. Another Jewish student was followed to her dorm while she was verbally harassed. According to the document, threats made in an internal Harvard chat included calls to “gas all the Jews” and “let them cook.” These comments received 25 positive votes, the newspaper details, on a campus made up of thousands of people.
In late October, Gay announced the formation of an advisory group on anti-Semitism composed of eight Harvard faculty members, alumni, and a student representative. Her task, she said, was “to develop a robust strategy to address anti-Semitism on campus.” Some Jewish students considered the approach insufficient. “Jewish students don’t feel like we take it seriously,” said one member, quoted in the report. Foxx has subpoenaed representatives from Harvard several more times, which has provided nearly 4,900 pages of material to the committee since January.
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Tense calm on campuses
Normality has not returned to the campuses after weeks of pro-Palestinian mobilizations. With graduation ceremonies at half throttle, almost secret, to avoid a massive influx of public that could lead to incidents, Columbia has approved a motion of censure against its rector, who twice requested the intervention of the New York police to clear the pro-Palestinian camp and an occupied campus building. Hundreds of university professors have spoken out against Nemat Shafik, whom they accuse of having committed an “unprecedented attack on students’ rights,” such as freedom of expression.
On other campuses, however, dialogue is required. The pro-Palestinian camp at Harvard University, one of the last, concluded this Tuesday after reaching an agreement with the rectorate, although the mobilization will continue in solidarity with the Palestinians. The organizers announced on protesters. The school will also hold talks about creating a Center for Palestinian Studies.
The controversy over anti-Semitism goes beyond the campus, becoming a new front in the cultural wars of Republicans against Democrats, as the former consider these elite universities as bastions of the left woke up. The recent passage by the House of Representatives of the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which requires the Department of Education to adopt the definition of anti-Semitism proposed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, shows the political and institutional derivative of the debate, which is causing a new division in the Democratic ranks between those who denounce the growing anti-Semitism on campuses and the more progressive or leftist. Repeatedly, simple slogans in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza or the chant “From the river [Jordán] to the sea, Palestine will be free” constitute for some Jewish students, and quite a few congressmen, clear anti-Semitic manifestations.
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