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Leaked Harvard University Document Addresses Unlawful Protests in Wake of Anti-Israel Demonstrations
A drone view shows a pro-Hamas encampment at Harvard University where students protest in support of Palestinians, during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, April 25, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Harvard University is considering a series of policies aimed at preventing the recurrence of the kinds of unauthorized demonstrations that convulsed the campus last academic year and prompted a slew of lawsuits and scandals, according to a leaked draft document.
First reported by The Harvard Crimson, the document, described as “privileged and confidential,” explicitly proscribes “camping,” a clear reference to the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” that students had set up on Harvard Yard and lived in for nearly three weeks between April and May. It also includes rules against noise pollution, chalking messages on school grounds, and staging protests during exam season.
One proposed rule which forbids photographing protesters may serve the interests of pro-Hamas students, who have chanted antisemitic slogans and proclaimed support for terrorism, by allowing them to remain anonymous. The Crimson says the provision will prevent doxxing, but critics maintain that identifying and preventing anti-Zionist demonstrators on Ivy League campuses from taking their place in the elite is necessary for protecting the Jewish community and keeping American institutions free of extremists.
“The purpose of this document is to establish a common set of such university rules for campus space use,” it says. “Organizations and/or individuals who do not comply with these rules may be held financially responsible for any resulting costs incurred and may be subject to other consequences for noncompliance, including referral for discipline.”
How the Crimson, Harvard’s official campus newspaper since 1873, obtained the document is not disclosed in the report. Harvard spokesman Jason Newton told the paper it “may not accurately indicate the current status of guidance regarding a particular topic.” He added that “once the document is finalized, it will be shared with the Harvard community.”
Other Harvard officials, past and present, including former president Larry Summers, commended the document for being “fine and reasonable.” However, Summers told the Crimson, Harvard’s official policies are often in tension with its actions.
“The issue is that the university, over the last year, has consistently failed to act and impose sanctions when policies are violated and has been slow to implement policies on behalf of Jewish student groups,” he explained. “That is why it is subject to multiple federal government investigations and civil suits.”
Summers’ skepticism is shared by the Jewish community and higher education critics who have accused Harvard University of contriving tough talk about discipline and preserving order to temper negative publicity prompted by its alleged refusal to address antisemitism on the campus. Earlier this month, it was reported that school officials awarded most of the degrees it withheld from pro-Hamas protesters as punishment for their participating in the unlawful encampment at Harvard Yard. The decision followed its “downgrading” disciplinary sanctions levied against several other protesters. Neither action led to contrition, however. Instead, the amnestied students proceeded to mock and revile the university anyway, denouncing it as cynical and rapacious while vowing to continue their flouting of school rules.
“Harvard has caved in, showing that the student intifada will always prevail” one of the groups involved in the anti-Israel demonstrations, Harvard Out of Occupied (HOOP), said upon learning of the news. “This reversal is a bare minimum. We call on our community to demand no less than Palestinian liberation from the river to the sea, grounded in the rights of return and resistance. We will not rest until divestment from the Israeli regime is met.”
The past year has been described by experts as a low point in the history of Harvard University, America’s oldest and, arguably, most important institution of higher education. Since the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas across southern Israel, the school has been accused of fostering a culture of racial grievance and antisemitism, while important donors have suspended funding for programs. In just the past nine months, its first Black president, Claudine Gay, resigned in disgrace after being outed as a serial plagiarist; Harvard faculty shared an antisemitic cartoon on social media; and protesters were filmed surrounding a Jewish student on campus and shouting “Shame!” into his ears.
According to the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Harvard has repeatedly misrepresented its handling of the explosion of hate and rule breaking, launching a campaign of deceit and spin to cover up what ultimately became the biggest scandal in higher education.
A report generated by the committee as part of a wider investigation of the school claimed that the university formed an Antisemitism Advisory Group (AAG) largely for show and did not consult its members when Jewish students were subject to verbal abuse and harassment, a time, its members felt, when its counsel was most needed. The advisory group went on to recommend nearly a dozen measures for addressing the problem and offered other guidance, the report said, but it was excluded from high-level discussions which preceded, for example, the December congressional testimony of former president Gay — a hearing convened to discuss antisemitism at Harvard.
So frustrated were a “majority” of AAG members with being an accessory to what the committee described as a guilefully crafted public relations facade that they threatened to resign from it.
Harvard must still tend to outstanding issues which resulted from the events of this past academic year. A congressional investigation of its handling of antisemitism is ongoing and six Jewish students are suing it for allegedly ignoring antisemitism discrimination.
In April, attorneys representing the school attempted to have the suit tossed out of court, arguing that the plaintiffs lack legal standing.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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‘Simply not true’: Toronto Jewish school head confirms windows were not ‘smashed’ in a hate crime
The head of school refutes sensationalist reporting by Rebel News.
The post ‘Simply not true’: Toronto Jewish school head confirms windows were not ‘smashed’ in a hate crime appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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US Defense Chief Says ‘We Will Help Israel’ if Attacked as Washington Scrambles to Stave Off Hezbollah War
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testifies before a House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on US President Joe Biden’s proposed budget request for the Department of Defense on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, April 17, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin vowed on Tuesday that the United States will come to Israel’s defense if the Jewish state is attacked by Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed terrorist organization based in Lebanon.
“We would like to see things resolved in a diplomatic fashion,” Austin told reporters after meetings in Manila with senior Philippine officials. “If Israel is attacked, yes, we will we help Israel defend itself. We’ve been clear about that from the very beginning.”
Austin’s comment came as tensions continued to escalate between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel on Tuesday targeted Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah commander, with an air strike in Beirut, Lebanon on Tuesday and reportedly believes it killed the long-time terrorist leader. The Algemeiner could not independently confirm Shukr’s current status.
The Israeli strike was a response to a Hezbollah rocket attack over the weekend on a soccer field in Majdal Shams, a small Druze town in the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria. The attack from southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah exerts major political and military influence, killed 12 children. The Jewish state vowed that Hezbollah would pay a “heavy price” for the strike.
Although many observers have expressed fear that the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah could soon spiral out of control, Austin argued that a full-scale war was not inevitable.
“I don’t believe that a fight is inevitable,” Austin told reporters.
Austin’s comments echoed sentiments from the White House, which said that the likelihood of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah is “exaggerated.” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Monday that the Biden administration is “confident” that such a conflict full-scale war between the Jewish state and the Iran-backed terrorist group will be avoided.
Nonetheless, Hezbollah has indicated that it will retaliate after Israel’s defensive strike on Tuesday. The terrorist group has thus far reportedly rejected requests from international envoys not to respond to the Israeli operation.
“International envoys are indirectly raising with us the idea that we should not respond to the expected aggression under the pretext of the need to avoid escalation and sliding towards a comprehensive war,” a Hezbollah official said, according to Reuters. The official added that Hezbollah had “informed them of our explicit rejection of this request” and would respond.
Hezbollah has pummeled northern Israeli communities with a barrage of missiles, rockets, and drones in the months following the Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel perpetrated by Hamas, another Iran-backed terrorist group. Estimates suggest that Hezbollah, an Iranian-proxy terrorist organization, has fired between 100-200 missiles into northern Israel nearly every day since Oct. 7.
More than 80,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate Israel’s north in October due to the unrelenting attacks. The majority of those spent the past nine months residing in hotels in other areas of Israel.
Nevertheless, the US State Department said it’s working to find a diplomatic solution to avoid further escalation.
“We’re continuing to work toward a diplomatic resolution that would allow Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return to their homes and live in peace and security. We certainly want to avoid any kind of escalation,” State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told a press briefing on Tuesday.
Patel added that American support for the Jewish state will remain “ironclad.”
“Israel has every right to defend itself,” Patel said, noting that the Jewish state “certainly faces threats like no other country does in that region of the world.”
During his address to a joint session of the US Congress last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that although he would prefer to reach a diplomatic resolution to the conflict with Lebanese Hezbollah, the Jewish state is willing to use force to defend itself.
“We prefer to achieve this diplomatically. But let me be clear: Israel will do whatever it must do to restore security to our northern border and return our people safely to their homes,” Netanyahu said.
The post US Defense Chief Says ‘We Will Help Israel’ if Attacked as Washington Scrambles to Stave Off Hezbollah War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian President Sworn in With Chants of ‘Death to America, Israel’
Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, speaks during his swearing-in ceremony at the parliament in Tehran, Iran, July 30, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran‘s new president Masoud Pezeshkian was sworn in on Tuesday, after winning an election earlier this month by promising to improve ties with the world and ease restrictions on social freedoms at home.
“We will pursue constructive and effective interaction with the world based on dignity, wisdom, and expediency,” Pezeshkian, an allegedly relative moderate, told a parliament session attended by foreign dignitaries and broadcast live on state television.
His victory has lifted hopes of a thaw in Iran‘s antagonistic relations with the West that might create openings for defusing its nuclear standoff with world powers.
But Pezeshkian takes office at a time of escalating Middle East tensions over Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza and cross-border fighting with Iran‘s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran, which backs the groups which describe themselves as the “Axis of Resistance” to Israel and US influence in the Middle East, has accused the United States of supporting what it calls Israeli crimes in Gaza.
“Those who supply weapons that kill children cannot teach Muslims about humanity,” Pezeshkian said to chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”
Leaders of Iran‘s Palestinian allies Hamas and the Islamic Jihad as well as senior representatives of Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthi movement and Lebanon’s Hezbollah attended the ceremony. All four groups are internationally designated terrorist groups.
Pezeshkian, who is expected to name his cabinet within two weeks, replaces hardline Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash in May.
As the ultimate authority in Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the final say in all state matters, including foreign and nuclear policy.
He must also approve Pezeshkian’s selections for key cabinet posts, such as the foreign, oil, and intelligence ministers.
As well as mounting pressure from the West over Tehran’s fast-advancing nuclear program, Pezeshkian faces the huge task of breaking Iran free of crippling US sanctions, reimposed after Washington ditched Iran‘s 2015 nuclear deal with major powers.
Indirect talks between Tehran and Washington to salvage the nuclear accord with six major powers have stalled since 2022, with both sides accusing the other of unreasonable demands.
“My government will never succumb to bullying and pressure … Pressure and sanctions do not work … and the Iranian people should be spoken to with respect,” said Pezeshkian.
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