The Israeli-Palestine conflict has become a world-renown issue in recent times, and has now spread to the college world. The respected Ivy-league, Harvard University, has recently been added to the list of schools now claiming acts of anti-Semitism amongst students.
The conflict itself is an issue between the Palestinians, the Arab population residing in the area that Israel now controls. The disagreement is over the land, as Palestine residents laid claim to the land based on their control before World War 2, and the Israeli laying claim to the territory because of their newly gained rights to the territory after said War.
The conflict has turned into a death sentence for many people within the country, in turn creating a tension across the world between those of the Israeli and Palestinians cultures. Specifically, the college world has been very involved, as there have been rally’s and walkouts in support of both sides. In recent news, the highly esteemed Harvard university has fallen victim to tensions, as it is now under investigation for claims of anti-Semitism.
The first official claim was filed on Tuesday November 28, joining a growing list of complaints from other ivy-leagues and well renown schools across the country. Although the complaint was anonymous, it was clear that the discrimination was against those of Jewish or Israeli lineage.
Despite the Office for Civil Rights not revealing the details of the investigation, it still has kept its obligation to investigate any sort of complaint “that states a viable legal claim.” The situation then escalated on Oct. 18 at the business school as a video clip was posted of a small group of Palestine-supporting students attempting to block another student who was recording a “die-in,” protest. A link to the clip can be found here.
Harvard specifically is a very well-known school across the country, with over 50,000 students applying as of 2023. As a student going through the application process, senior Lucas Ammerlan—a political science major—shares his opinions of the rising issue issue.
”Regarding anti-Semitism as a whole, I do believe it’s increased due to the war,” Ammerlan explains, “I see it as in the way Islamophobia arose after nine-eleven … Though I still plan to apply regardless since it wasn’t an action from the university itself.”
The Ivy-league has also received tremendous amounts of backlash from the incident, such as veteran donors of the school who do not support the response to the situation. Harvard has also been under immense pressure to be more productive in the cases of students being split between both sides of the war. There have been several efforts by Harvard in hopes of stopping anti-Semitism, most recently the advisory group on anti-Semitism created by University President, Claudine Gray.
The case itself was taken to congress at the House of Committee on Education and the Workforce on December 5, where Gay would address the anti-Semitic actions of her students. Along with MIT President Sally A. Kornbluth and University of Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Magill, Gay’s remarks summarized the difficulty she and other college faculty face between allowing free expression, and combatting hate, and stated that, “again, it depends on the context.”
This comment proceeded to me the source of increased backlash against Gay, which she then rebutted with statement on Harvard’s social media sites addressing her reasoning.
“Let me be clear: Calls for violence against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account.”
However, this statement did not go over well for students and staff, as it only continued Gray’s backlash because her postings were too late after the initial testimony. Gray continued to state how she is grateful for the testimony, and has regretted the way the situation was seen through her students point of view.
A summarized version can be read as well as watched here. The issue of anti-Semitism is still being updated daily, specifically on the Harvard Crimson newspaper, and is continuing to be an issue amongst the prestigious school.
