Even though Harvard University is still fending off accusations of anti-Semitism, more than 65 faculty members have banded together and formed a pro-Palestinian group that has condemned the “unfolding genocide” in Gaza, according to Fox News Digital.
This comes after former President Claudine Gay appeared before Congress to answer for the school’s refusal to push back against anti-Semitism. Colleges and universities across the U.S. entered the spotlight by defending Palestinians after Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel on October 7.
A statement was released on January 6, announcing that 67 faculty and staff members at Harvard had established a chapter of the national network of Faculty for Justice in Palestine. The group went on to demand that Harvard pull back its investments from the Jewish state “and companies that sustain Israeli apartheid, settler colonialism, and systemic human rights abuses against Palestinians.”
“The unfolding genocide in Gaza cannot be disconnected from over 75 years of violent dispossession of the Palestinian people. The US government, media, and other institutions of knowledge production have long provided financial, military, moral, and political cover for the Israeli occupation and its colonial, racial violence,” members of the group said.
“Our universities play an integral role in these structures of violence. In addition to investing in companies that maintain the occupation, many — including Harvard — methodically censor, surveil, and discipline students, faculty, and staff for teaching and speech that is critical of the state of Israel.”
The report mentioned that a student activist group at Harvard, called Justice for Palestine, launched anti-Israel protests following Hamas’ terrorist attack against the Jewish state in early October. Some 1,200 Israelis were brutally slaughtered in the attack, and another 240 were abducted and taken into Gaza.
Several Jewish students have now filed lawsuits against Harvard University, claiming that “antisemitism cancer is growing on campus” and that the prestigious institution has hired “professors who support anti-Jewish violence,” per Fox News Digital.
The Harvard Crimson reported that the FSJP statement said “[t]he Harvard administration has consistently failed to defend targeted students, take meaningful action to protect them, or address dozens of complaints of on-campus discrimination or bullying they have submitted through official channels.”
Lara Jirmanus, Harvard Medical School instructor, who is one of the statement’s signatories, said in an interview that the group wanted to “stand behind the students.”
However, it is unclear how the formation of the group is defending or standing up for Jewish students on campus.
Harvard sued by Jewish students over antisemitism on campus | On Balancewww.youtube.com
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