On Wednesday, Harvard University published its internal report titled “Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias.”
“[A] new generation of student activists seems to have begun to perceive Israel as a symbol and vehicle of the evils of the United States and the rest of the Western world,” the report stated. “A Harvard faculty member who works closely with students reported to us that some Jewish students choose to hide their identities on campus, which was something the faculty member could not have imagined would ever be the case at Harvard.”
The report added that an “antisemitic cartoon circulated in February 2024 by groups of pro-Palestinian Harvard students, staff, and faculty on social media. The cartoon, depicting a white hand with a Jewish star holding a noose around the heads of a Black man (Muhammad Ali) and an Arab man (Gamal Abdel Nasser), came from 1960s Black student activism, and it was widely condemned as antisemitic by Black leaders at that time.”
“The more time we spent on this problem, the more we learned about how demonization of Israel has impacted a much wider swath of campus life than we would have imagined,” the authors wrote.
“Pro-Palestinian activists often target what they see as key planks in Western support for Israel: 1. the belief that Israeli Jews have a historic connection to the territory of the modern State of Israel; 2. a view of Israel as a Western liberal democracy; and 3. the post-Holocaust social prohibition on antisemitism, whether expressed as outright Jew-hatred or the denial of the State of Israel’s legitimacy.”
The report includes testimony from former Harvard President Claudine Gay, who spoke before Congress. During this hearing, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and other representatives inquired whether individuals calling for genocide against Jews were in violation of Harvard’s code of conduct. Gay responded that it “depends on the context.”
The Harvard report called Gay’s answers “strained efforts,” writing, “What seemed to many like President Gay’s strained efforts to avoid providing a clear yes or no answer ignited a firestorm of criticism nationwide.”
The report noted a letter to the editor of the Harvard Crimson from the student president of Harvard Hillel’s undergraduate student Jewish community stating, “Being Jewish at Harvard today is vastly more difficult than it was [for college students] in the ‘90s.”
“We were surprised to learn just how correct this seems to be,” the report stated.
