Harvard University published its long -awaited reports of anti -Semitism and anti -Muslim bias and introduced a terrible criticism of how her students treated Hamas after an attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.
“I apologize for the moments when we did not meet the high expectations that we rightly set for our community,” said Harvard President Alan Garber in a letter on Tuesday accompanying reports offering recommendations for university, which includes admission, complaints and how they teach.
Garber, who acknowledged that he recently experienced anti -Semitism at Harvard, publishes studies because the oldest and richest American university is facing more government probes to deal with Jewish students and play the role of race on the campus. The reports are investigating the turbulent period in the previous school year marked by anti-Angle protests and tent camps at Harvard’s yard, as well as accusations that pro-indiagist groups did to demonstrators.
While the federal government killed Harvard over anti -Semitism after October 7 attacks, her criticism under Trump’s administration turned into an attack on the university administration, its promotion of diversity programs and its perceived liberal bias. On Monday, the government launched further investigation and claimed discrimination against Harvard Law Review.
The Massachusetts School in Massachusetts fired against the requirements and stated that it was an effort to develop government control of the school and did not deal with anti -Semitism. This month, Harvard sued the government and accused her of unlawful suspension of funding after the university refused to meet “unconstitutional requirements”.
Garber created working groups about anti -Semitism and Islamophobia in January 2024, weeks after he entered as a temporary president after a sudden resignation of Claudine Gay, the first black president of the university. After accusation of plagiarism and criticism of her catastrophic reaction in the Congress testimony, it was forced to call for the genocide of Jews against university politics.
Working groups are running together on more than 500 pages, which sometimes offered to repeat the lives of Jewish, Israeli, Muslim and Arab students. They were derived from interviews with community members and written groups more than a dozen of the faculty, students and employees.
A report on anti -Semitism
The working group fighting anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli bias described the campus in which anti-Semitism was excluded from forms of prejudices such as racism or xenophobia.
The report contained an example of a Jewish student who plans to present a speech describing their experience as grandchildren of the Holocaust survivors. But the student told him that he was told: “I cannot mention the rescue mission of my grandfather in my speech, because his rescue mission includes Israel. Nowhere does my speech mention contemporary war or Zionism. It’s strictly about the Holocaust.”
The report also described the “new era” of the Pro-Palestinian organization with tactics, such as injection of discussions on the Palestinian cause into a wide range of areas in students’ lives and the use of disturbing tactics at important events, including the first year at Harvard College and a match at the Faculty of Medicine.
The working group for anti -Semitism recommended changes in eight categories, including acceptance and discipline. For admission, this proposed to assess the ability of the applicant in navigation situations with different aspects – something Harvard College has already done with a new essay question announced last year.
Anti-Muslim message
The Working Group against the Antimuslim, Anti-Arab and Anti-Palestinian bias said that students and other community members felt “abandoned and silenced” during the school year 2023-24.
Muslim students told the working group that they live in fear. One said the peers lost their jobs for being leaders in Muslim faith. They were also concerned about doxxing – by publishing private information about a person without their consent – which they stated that they had created an intimidation climate that was enhanced by the perception that the reaction of the administration was insufficient.
The report on anti-Muslim distortion has proposed seven sets of recommendations concerning security, freedom of expression and transparency. The proposals also included growing courses in Palestinian studies and strengthening intercultural understanding.
The authors of the reports said they decided to listen to the concerns of the community members and not to verify.
“The conclusions based on this work are clear,” Garber wrote. “We have to get to know and act on them and we do it.”
He said that Harvard had made progress by limiting official statements on public affairs that were not related to the school’s main mission and repeated the rules for time and place of protests. The university also pointed to the next steps she took, including building “dialogue skills”, and offers increased possibilities of Kosher and providing community support during Ramadan.
Area of focus
Reports did not provide recommendations to sell the Harvard Foundation $ 53 billion from Israel or American weapons manufacturers, the main demand of many pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Garber said earlier that Harvard’s consistent position is that he does not intend to “sell Israel”.
Garber said that the school would focus on three areas: raising a widespread sense of belonging and supporting a respectful dialogue; Revision and implementation of policies, procedures and training; and strengthening of academic and residential life.
The new events that Harvard will do is the initiative to support the diversity of the point of view and other overview of disciplinary policies and procedures to assess their effectiveness and efficiency. Harvard also reviews recommendations, some of which can be implemented by the university and some individual schools such as acceptance.
The institution spent more than a year emphasizing the efforts that are spent on the fight against anti -Semitism, including educational and security measures. In recent weeks, the school has built the Harvard University Committee of Palestinian Solidarity for Probation and forced the leader of the Faculty of Center for the Middle East to leave their positions. Harvard also suspended partnership with Birzeit University on the West Bank.
Harvard said on Monday that his diversity, justice and integration office would be renamed community and campus life. This is in line with its current focus on community building, the school said.
(Tagstotranslate) Harvard President (T) Anti-Semitism and Anti-Muslim
