Harvard Chancellor Claudine Gay last Tuesday during her appearance before the Congressional Education Committee. KEN CEDENO (Portal)
US campuses have become the rearguard of the Gaza war. The numerous pro-Palestinian demonstrations and the atmosphere of hostility and insecurity that many Jewish students say they feel have pushed rectorates into a corner, balancing between protecting the constitutional right to freedom of expression and pressure from employers and donors. and centers are stopping and even punishing any statement that is considered anti-Semitic. The worsening crisis has already claimed its first victim: University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, who tendered her resignation Saturday, dragging the president of the board of trustees with her.
In an exercise in political opportunism, Republicans have seen a golden opportunity to attack the campuses they see as bastions of the radical left and have spawned theories, but this time they had unexpected allies, the Democrats: on issues of anti-Semitism, what the help for Israel, there are no half measures and the two parties are uniting, save for a few names from the progressive wing of the Democrats. Because the heated debate over anti-Semitism on campus is not just another expression of the culture wars that Republicans are waging against their opponents; It is a deep-seated problem that has been exacerbated by the Gaza war.
An online petition calling for Liz Magill's resignation that garnered 24,000 signatures within hours was the final straw last week that triggered the chancellor's resignation from Penn, like the University of Pennsylvania, part of the exclusive Ivy League, triggered known. . Magill had appeared before the Republican-controlled House Education Committee a day earlier, along with her Harvard colleague Claudine Gay and her MIT colleague Sally Kornbluth. The three women's evasive reactions to an inquisitorial interrogation by the members of the committee did not calm the situation but led to further criticism. Congressmen and donors believed that the principals had excelled in explicitly condemning calls for genocide against Jews on campus. A Penn donor's threat to withdraw his $100 million donation, along with the online petition and harsh criticism from Pennsylvania's governor and even the White House, led to Magill's resignation. Gay could be next, although more than 650 faculty members have signed a letter supporting him and opposing his firing by the board. Democrats viewed the principals' responses Friday as “unacceptable.”
In addition to irreconcilable ideas, the million-dollar budgets of elite universities are also at stake. Pennsylvania has a budget of $21 billion and Harvard $50 billion, and the flight of donors dissatisfied with the management of war protests has opened a dangerous waterway. But the increase in reports of anti-Semitic incidents – sometimes a simple ceasefire slogan or an Intifada cry that some students find threatening – has also sparked an Education Department investigation that has now reached a dozen centers, including Harvard, Pennsylvania and Columbia. New York, could be the driving force behind the debate. They all face charges for allegedly violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin. Programs found to be violating this title could lose federal funding. One of the lawsuits, signed by an Israeli Penn graduate, said the university had become “an incubator of vicious anti-Jewish hatred.”
The lukewarmness with which Magill, like Gay, responded to the sharp questions of Republican Elise Stefanik, an avowed Trumpist and bearer of conspiracy theories such as the “Great Replacement,” determined his end. In a golden minute that went viral, just a snippet of the more than five-hour session, Stefanik goaded the rectors by asking them whether calls for genocide against Jews made at some protests violated the university's code of conduct. “It depends on the context,” Magill and Gay responded, underscoring the constitutional obligation to preserve debate about ideas and free expression. The two had received legal training from a large law firm and appeared before the commission as if it were a trial and not a supposedly informative appearance.
Criticism of the pre-war Palestinian festival
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“They showed no emotion or distress and simply answered as if it were a math test,” criticized Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen, a progressive Jew. Their reactions, which were aimed at not compromising them, fueled the anger even more and both were forced to make amends a day later, so anyone who incites violence must be held accountable. Two days later, Magill resigned. Stefanik, a Republican, said her resignation was “just the beginning” and Gay was next. “This forced resignation of the principal of Penn is the minimum that can be demanded,” he posted on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
But the gag goes even further. Magill was also criticized for allowing a festival of Palestinian literature in September – days before the brutal Hamas attack that sparked the war – that featured Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters, among other speakers particularly critical of Israel. For Peter Beinart, a professor at New York University and author of an excellent blog on the Palestinian-Israeli question, the university protests calling for intifada or “from the river to the sea” (expulsion of the Jews from the Jordan) are in the Mediterranean ) and their equation with anti-Semitism and calls for violence “are misplaced nonsense and an attempt to control the discourse about Israel and Palestine,” he wrote in X. Beinart believes the controversy is a diversionary tactic to shift the focus away from what is happening in Gaza.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which strongly advocates for free speech on campus, has also defended the principals, arguing that context does matter and that censorship would ultimately be more harmful than one's own speech. “Even a strict ban on calls for genocide – a term with controversial meaning – would inevitably be applied in an arbitrary or discriminatory manner,” the group warned in X.
As the Associated Press agency recalled this Sunday in its summary of the controversy, a folk song sung at pro-Palestinian demonstrations was distorted as a call for Jewish “genocide.” “Israel, we accuse you of genocide” is a typical refrain heard at demonstrations in support of the Palestinians, explains the agency, which has visited more than a dozen US campuses. This is what both pro-Palestinians and pro-Jews who were present at these protests admit. The demonstrators did not shout: “We want genocide against the Jews,” the agency assures.
As the death toll rises in Gaza, more demonstrations in American cities are supporting Palestinians, according to a tracker from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. At the same time, almost half of the pro-Israel protests recorded worldwide took place in the United States, according to the same tool. Opinion polls show that younger Americans in particular have had greater sympathy for the Palestinians since the conflict began.
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