New Delhi: American universities are becoming the new battlegrounds over the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, with student groups, university boards and major philanthropic donors taking sides in their support to Jewish and Palestinian communities.
On Wednesday, New York University School of Law Wednesday said that it is investigating one of its students, Ryna Workman, the former Student Bar Association president, for violating the university’s discriminatory policies.
Workman had published a critical statement last week, condemning Israel for the conflict. This is the latest move punishing Ivy League students for their stance in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Harvard is one of the first universities to lose funding over statements criticising Israel for the ongoing violence in the region and its ‘apartheid’ on Palestine.
On Tuesday, the Wexner Foundation — whose mission is to develop and inspire leaders in the North American Jewish Community and Israel — cut ties with Harvard Kennedy School after the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Society along with 33 student groups released a statement condemning Tel Aviv.
“For the last two decades, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison. Israeli officials promise to ‘open the gates of hell,’ and the massacres in Gaza have already commenced,” the student groups stated. “In the coming days, Palestinians will be forced to bear the full brunt of Israel’s violence. The apartheid regime is the only one to blame.”
Announcing its decision to sever its ‘financial and programmatic relationship with Harvard’, the Wexner Foundation said it was ‘sickened at the dismal failure of Harvard’s leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stand against barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians by terrorists’.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman called on Harvard to reveal the names of the students who signed the letter to ensure that companies do not hire such individuals. Students are now facing consequences of their views on the war outside their campuses, as many companies are threatening not to hire those critical of Israel.
Job prospects of many students have also been affected by their statements on the Israel-Hamas war. Davis Polk & Wardwell rescinded job offers to three students from Columbia University and Harvard University as their views on the crisis did not align with that of the law firm.
Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer and his wife also quit the Harvard executive board in protest of the critical letter written by the student groups.
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Protests across Ivy League campuses
However, Harvard is not the only university to be impacted by pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protests. Hundreds of Pennsylvania university’s students and faculty protested Monday, raising pro-Palestine slogans and placards, after university president Liz Magill’s statement condemning the Hamas attack failed to mention the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Magill’s statement came after numerous donors, including former US ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr. and New York-based Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, stopped donations, calling the university ‘anti-Semitic’.
In a letter signed by over 4,000 people including alumni and Penn supporters on 10 October, the donors called on Magill and board chair Scott L. Bok to resign, after the university hosted several Palestinian speakers who allegedly used anti-Semitic language during the Palestine Writes Literature Festival last month. Vahan Gureghian, a member of the board of trustees, resigned in protest on Saturday.
Columbia University also saw massive protests last week, with hundreds of students gathered for pro-Israel and pro-Palestine demonstrations. Despite largely peaceful protests, due to rising tensions between the two groups, the university administration was forced to close the campus to the public later in the week.
‘Students for Justice in Palestine’ and ‘Students Supporting Israel’ organised these protests, according to Columbia University Interim Provost Dennis A Mitchell. He emphasised that “with freedom (of speech) comes the responsibility to ensure that our campus remains safe”.
Hate speech, discrimination, or violation of our core values will not be tolerated, Mitchell added.
Roughly 30 US Jewish groups, campus organisations demanded universities withdraw their recognition for the ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’ after the group allegedly ‘glorified’ the Hamas 7 October attack during their ‘National Day of Resistance’ protest on 12 October.
In the letter, published last week, the signatories called for ‘ moral accountability and official punishment for SJP and its chapters for their campaign to glorify the Hamas attacks.’
Local reports report that students have also been injured as a result of discriminatory attacks across the city. Apart from Columbia, New York, Times Square and Brooklyn College also saw protests, both criticising Israel and Hamas.
However, over the past week, some students have said that they had not seen the statement signed by the Harvard groups.
Danielle Mikealian, one such student, has resigned as board member of a Harvard group after she stated that she had not seen the statement until it was signed. Danielle added that she was not the only one in this situation and many others have also stepped down from their positions as a result.
So far, at least 3,000 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, while roughly 1,400 have been killed in Israel.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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