Businessman Bill Ackman recently took aim at the president of Harvard University for opting not to attend Israel’s screening of footage that was captured on October 7, when Hamas terrorists launched a surprise attack against the Jewish state, killing 1,200 people.
The billionaire hedge fund manager said that Claudine Gay had failed to show leadership, and referred to her decision not to attend the screening an “insult” to those who have been impacted by the tragic event, according to the Daily Mail.
Ackman apparently offered to fly the Harvard president to Washington, D.C. immediately after the conclusion of the screening, where she is expected to answer for the sudden spike in anti-Semitism at the prestigious university.
Since Hamas’ attacks against the Jewish state on October 7, anti-Semitism has dramatically increased, especially in Western countries, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
However, Gay declined the offer by Ackman, with her staff saying that she was going to be “out of town” in an email reply.
Ackman went on the offensive in early November, writing on X: “The failure of @Harvard, @MIT and other universities to discipline protesters who violate their rules emboldens the protesters to more aggressive, disruptive and antisemitic actions.”
“This has created a climate of fear that is not conducive to a university education. The failure to discipline students who have bullied, assaulted or otherwise been abusive to Jewish students under the guise of free speech or a supposed requirement to wait for the completion of a police and FBI investigation is similarly absurd. Imagine if a female student were sexually assaulted by five male Jewish students and it was captured on multiple videos.”
“The hypocrisy and double standard in how attacks on Jewish and Israeli students on campus are being handled by Harvard, MIT and other universities is self evident, and now we are beginning to see the consequences of the lack of enforcement of a universities’ own standards for student conduct and permitted speech. The problem is only getting worse. I would not be surprised to see the white supremacists begin their campus protests shortly.”
The Harvard Crimson, the university’s newspaper, reported that “Gay will testify during a hearing on Dec. 5 alongside MIT President Sally A. Kornbluth and University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill.”
“Harvard, MIT, and UPenn have all faced calls to do more to combat antisemitism after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel revealed bitter tensions on college campuses across the country.”
Gay’s upcoming appearance before Congress comes after The Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Education Department opened an investigation into allegations of anti-Semitism cropping up at the school.
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