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Harvard University Deceived Public in Response to Antisemitism, Shocking Congressional Report Alleges
Demonstrators take their “Emergency Rally: Stand with Palestinians Under Siege in Gaza” out of Harvard University and onto the streets of Harvard Square, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, Oct.14, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Harvard University severely lapsed in its response to surging antisemitism on campus after Hamas’ invasion of Israel on Oct. 7 and, at times, acted disingenuously to deceive the public, according to a shocking report issued on Thursday by the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
The report, generated as part of a wider investigation into Harvard, claimed that the university formed an Antisemitism Advisory Group (AAG) largely for show and did not consult it in key moments during an explosion of antisemitism there that directly followed Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel — a series of events in which Jewish students were harassed and verbally abused. So frustrated were a “majority” of AAG members with being part of what the committee described as essentially a public relations facade that they threatened to resign from it.
“The committee’s report proves that former President [Claudine] Gay and Harvard’s leadership propped up the university’s Antisemitism Advisory Group all for show,” US Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chair of the Education and Workforce Committee, said in a statement. “Not only did the AAG find that antisemitism was a major issue on campus, it offered several recommendations on how to combat the problem — none of which were ever implemented with any real vigor. This shocking revelation reveals an inner look at how dysfunctional Harvard’s administration is and the deep-seated moral rot that clouds its judgement.”
The advisory group recommended nearly a dozen measures for addressing the problem and offered other guidance, the report says, but it was excluded from high-level discussions that preceded Gay’s testimony about the university’s response to antisemitism before the education committee in December, an event which ultimately led to her resignation. Among other things, AAG recommended inquiring into the “academic rigor” of courses reputed to promote antisemitism, the precipitous decline in Jewish enrollment at Harvard, and the possibility that terrorists organizations are financing the anti-Zionist student movement. Allegedly, numerous other concerns were raised and ignored.
“Members of the AAG raised the need to address the proliferation of masked protests on campus,” the report said. “Gay flatly rejected a ban on masked protest, citing concerns about free expression and stating she believed it was not feasible to require a medical need for everyone who wears a surgical mask … Despite the concerns about ‘hundreds’ of masked protesters on campus and the illegality of wearing a mask while intending, for example, to intimidate, Harvard’s leaders have not taken steps to prevent masked protesters from harassing and intimidating Jewish students and evading accountability in their violations of university rules.”
The report concluded that Harvard never took meaningful action to address antisemitic hatred and the flouting of school rules against harassment and discrimination, an abdication of responsibility that allegedly contributed to the eruption of a nearly three-week-long demonstration in which a group calling itself Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine (HOOP) occupied Harvard Yard and refused to leave unless the administration agreed to divest from and boycott Israel.
Further details are forthcoming, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce promised. It added that the entire US Congress is now participating in the inquiry, which has been joined by “five other congressional committees to date.”
Harvard’s Jewish Alumni Association (HJAA) also issued a report on Thursday alleging antisemitism among “faculty and teaching fellows there as well” and that the slogans chanted by anti-Zionist protesters during their demonstrations, some of which called for a genocide of Jews in Israel, were learned in the classroom. There have been “no consequences” for such behavior, the group charged.
“The administration has repeatedly ignored Jewish students’ complaints despite clear violations of Harvard’s non-discrimination and anti-bullying policies,” the report said. “We reject how the university is balancing free speech and academic freedom with Jewish students’ rights to access an education free from harassment and hate.”
Earlier this week, Harvard University reached an agreement to end a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” that was highly favorable to the students who broke school rules to mount it. It included the processing of reinstatement petitions for those who were punished with “involuntary leave” — a measure which in effect disenrolled and banned them from school — and a meeting with the school’s Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (CCSR) to discuss the possibility of divestment from companies linked to Israel.
Harvard maintained that it did not grant “amnesty” to any student placed on involuntary leave or charged with violating school rules, but critics insist that it did and, in doing so, emboldened them to escalate their conduct in the future.
The environment at Harvard University, America’s oldest and arguably most prestigious institution of higher learning, has been closely scrutinized since Oct. 7. Following the tragedy, the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) issued a statement blaming Israel for the attack and vowed to pressure the university to cut ties with the Jewish state. A slew of incidents came next: Students stormed academic buildings chanting “globalize the intifada,” a mob followed and surrounded a Jewish student, screaming “Shame! Shame! Shame!” into his ears, and the Harvard Law School student government passed a resolution that falsely accused Israel of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
High-level university officials and faculty also engaged in questionable conduct, some of which was recounted in Thursday’s report by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
In December, Gay told a US congressional committee that calling for a genocide of Jews living in Israel would only violate school rules “depending on the context.” In February, Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine — a spinoff of a student group allegedly linked to terrorist organizations — shared an antisemitic cartoon on social media which showed a left-hand tattooed with a Star of David, containing a dollar sign at its center, dangling a Black man and an Arab man from a noose. The group’s former leader, history professor Walter Johnson, later participated in HOOP’s “Gaza encampment” and encouraged the protesters to defy the university’s order to leave the area.
Harvard University will be dealing with the fallout of the events of this academic year for the foreseeable future. In addition to being investigated by Congress, it is being sued by a Jewish alumni group that accuses it of cheapening the value of their degrees by refusing to address its antisemitism problem.
Harvard, which argues that the plaintiffs’ complaint lacks legal standing, has twice attempted to have the suit dismissed.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Harvard University Deceived Public in Response to Antisemitism, Shocking Congressional Report Alleges first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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