New York (AFP) – Harvard University task forces charged with investigating claims of anti-Semitism, and anti-Arab and Muslim hate reported Tuesday that such prejudice had taken root on campus, urging the college to champion the fight against bigotry. Harvard, with other prestigious US universities, has been accused by President Donald Trump of turning a blind eye to campus anti-Semitism in the wake of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, and the retaliatory campaign in Gaza.
US universities, including Harvard, were at the forefront of vocal protests against Israel’s military onslaught, as well as sometimes tense counter-demonstrations. In response, Trump has sought to take control of college curriculums and staffing as well as slash funding, while deporting foreign student activists associated with the pro-Palestinian movement.
A task force report on anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias said both had “been fomented, practiced, and tolerated not only at Harvard but also within academia more widely.” The report, which heard from hundreds of students and staff at dozens of listening sessions, urged the university’s leadership “to become champions in the fight against anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli bias.” A separate task force on combating anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias found “a deep-seated sense of fear among students, staff, and faculty.”
“Muslims, Palestinians, Arab Christians, and others of Arab descent as well as pro-Palestinian allies described a state of uncertainty, abandonment, threat, and isolation, and a pervasive climate of intolerance,” the report said.
Vowing to implement changes recommended in the reports, the university’s president, Alan Garber, said “Harvard cannot — and will not — abide bigotry.” “We will continue to provide for the safety and security of all members of our community and safeguard their freedom from harassment,” he said in a statement.
Trump has previously bashed Harvard, labeling the prestigious university an “Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institution,” as it battles his administration’s bid to freeze billions of dollars of its federal funding. He is furious at Harvard for rejecting government supervision of its admissions, hiring practices, and political ideology and ordered the freezing of $2.2 billion in federal funding to the storied institution.
Trump and his White House team have publicly justified their campaign against universities as a reaction to what they say is uncontrolled anti-Semitism. Many US universities, including Harvard, cracked down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the time, with the Cambridge-based institution placing 23 students on probation and denying degrees to 12 others, according to protest organizers.
© 2024 AFP
