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At Harvard and beyond, some students blame Israel for Hamas attacks, reigniting campus Israel debates
(JTA) – Hours after news broke that Hamas had murdered hundreds of Israelis in border towns near Gaza, students at Harvard University sat down to write a letter of protest.
The letter, titled “Joint Statement by Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the Situation in Palestine,” does not mince words. It opens, “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”
Expressing no sympathy for the hundreds of Israeli victims, the dozens of student groups — including representatives of Palestinian, Arab, Black, Bengali, Pakistani, South Asian and Sikh student associations — instead focused on Israel’s historic treatment of Palestinians and stated plans to retaliate against Hamas in Gaza.
“The apartheid regime is the only one to blame,” it reads, concluding, “The coming days will require a firm stand against colonial retaliation. We call on the Harvard community to take action to stop the ongoing annihilation of Palestinians.”
The student letter was joined by at least two others, at Columbia University and New York University, that targeted Israel for condemnation. Students at other schools made pro-Palestinian social media posts and held pro-Palestinian demonstrations this week, some linking Hamas’ actions to Indigenous Peoples Day.
Taken together, the activities — and the responses they generated — are a sign that the campus wars over Israel, already a lightning rod for controversy, are reigniting in the aftermath of Hamas’ attacks.
Antisemitism watchdogs say campuses are already a hotbed of anti-Israel activity, and a Palestinian culture festival at the University of Pennsylvania induced an early-in-the-semester flareup of debate last month.
Now, Students for Justice in Palestine, a national group with chapters at major universities across the United States, has declared Hamas’ operation to be “a historic win for the Palestinian resistance” and called for a “Day of Resistance” on Thursday.
The group is encouraging local chapters to hold demonstrations to “continue to resist directly through dismantling Zionism” and distributed a list of talking points that stated, “When people are occupied, resistance is justified,” declared that “settlers are not ‘civilians’ in the sense of international law,” and framed Hamas’ actions as “Gaza broke out of prison.”
Some Jewish students have expressed concern about the group’s plans. “Although these are all non-violent tactics, they raise the real possibility of creating a hostile environment for Jewish students, and the confrontational spirit that permeates the toolkit raises the concern that these actions could lead to acts of harassment or vandalism targeting Jewish students and organizations,” the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement about SJP’s “Day of Resistance.”
Whatever happens on Thursday, it’s clear that the attack on Israel has given rise to a new third rail in campus discourse about Israel, around who deserves blame for Saturday’s unprecedented violence against Israelis. Here’s what has happened at three universities where the third rail has already been touched this week.
At Harvard, administrators leave 30 student groups’ letter unanswered for days
Even as Harvard and other schools have held numerous vigils and demonstrations for victims of the attacks, the letter has quickly prompted widespread condemnation from campus Jewish groups, influential Harvard alumni and beyond.
“In nearly 50 years of Harvard affiliation, I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today,” Lawrence Summers, the Jewish former Harvard president and former U.S. Treasury Secretary, posted on X Monday.
One Jewish group, Harvard Jews for Liberation, also signed the letter; the group, which originated out of Harvard Divinity School, calls itself a “spiritual and political space for anti-Zionist and non-Zionist Jews at Harvard.” A Jewish Telegraphic Agency request for comment to a student listed as one of the group’s lead organizers was not returned.
Harvard and Columbia’s presidents did not immediately issue official statements about the attacks. Harvard President Claudine Gay and 17 other senior officials released a statement on the attack on Monday, two days after the student groups’ statement. Gay, the school’s provost and top deans did attend events marking the attack, including a “solidarity dinner” at Hillel, according to a report in the Crimson, the student newspaper.
The statement said administrators were “heartbroken by the death and destruction unleashed by the attack by Hamas that targeted citizens in Israel this weekend, and by the war in Israel and Gaza now under way.” It added that the violence “hits all too close to home for many at Harvard,” and expressed the hope that “we can all take steps that will draw on our common humanity and shared values in order to modulate rather than amplify the deep-seated divisions and animosities so distressingly evident in the wider world.”
But this statement was also criticized by alumni, with Democratic U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, who is Jewish, denouncing it as “word salad approved by committee.”
The issue was particularly potent at Harvard, which has recently served as a flashpoint for different facets of the Israel campus debate. Last year, a range of alumni and community members also denounced the Crimson’s endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel.
And earlier this year, the Ivy League school extended a fellowship offer to Ken Roth, a fierce Israel critic and former Human Rights Watch director, after receiving broad pushback for earlier denying his appointment, reportedly for his views on Israel. (Roth, who remains a fellow at Harvard while also accepting a visiting professorship at Princeton, has denounced the Hamas attacks on Twitter, calling them “an egregious war crime” and adding, “War crimes by one side never justify war crimes by the other. Is either side listening?”)
“I think a lot of us were disappointed that our peers at Harvard Law School would sign such a letter,” Erica Newman-Corre, co-president of the law school’s Jewish Law Student Association and a Harvard College alum, told JTA. “In law school there’s a lot of focus on nuance and conversation, and we felt that the letter wasn’t consistent with those values of law students.”
Newman-Corre does not typically use her phone on Shabbat but turned it on when she heard news of Israel because she has family currently visiting the country. Her family is now safe, but the campus climate over the issue has upset many Jewish students, she said.
“Over my years at Harvard there’s been some anti-Israel sentiment, but it’s never pervasive and it’s never felt like I can’t go about my daily life without experience or noticing it,” she said. “This is obviously a more extreme moment.”
Frustrated Jewish Harvard student groups and alumni circulated a statement of their own condemning the one by the solidarity group.
“The statement signed by the Palestine Solidarity Committee and dozens of other student groups blaming Israel for the aforementioned attacks is completely wrong and deeply offensive,” reads a “Joint Statement on War in Israel” signed by more than a dozen Jewish Harvard groups, hundreds of faculty and staff and thousands of other individuals including several alumni.
“There are no justifications for acts of terror we have seen in the past days,” the letter continues. “We call on all the student groups who co-signed the statement to retract their signatures from the offensive letter.”
Among the signatories: Harvard Hillel, Harvard Chabad, emeritus professor and prominent pro-Israel advocate Alan Dershowitz, divinity school visiting scholar Rabbi David Wolpe, novelist and alum Dara Horn, Newman-Corre, and dozens of Harvard Medical School professors. Some public figures who are not Harvard alums, including New York Democratic Rep. Richie Torres, also signed.
“It’s kind of shocking to know that we’re sitting in classes with peers who are blaming our people for our people’s own murders and rapes,” Jacob Miller, the student president of Harvard Hillel and an initial drafter of the open letter, told JTA. “And I would say that this is very antisemitic. I don’t know how Jewish students are going to handle this. I don’t know how Jewish students are expected to move forward living in this campus environment and attending classes with students who are so callous.”
Following the oppositional letter, Gay issued a second statement about Israel Tuesday, which Harvard published online but did not immediately email to students. In it, she specifically condemned Hamas.
“Such inhumanity is abhorrent, whatever one’s individual views of the origins of longstanding conflicts in the region,” Gay wrote. Then, referencing the initial letter, she added, “While our students have the right to speak for themselves, no student group — not even 30 student groups — speaks for Harvard University or its leadership.”
By late Tuesday, several of the student groups had removed their names from the initial letter, with leaders telling the Crimson they had not been made aware their organizations had signed on, and some saying they hadn’t read the statement. Others issued statements of their own condemning Hamas. The college also said that students involved in groups that signed the letter were seeing their personal information leaked online, while Jewish hedge-fund manager and Harvard alum Bill Ackman wrote on X that other CEOs want Harvard to release names of every group participant “so as to insure that none of us inadvertently hire any of their members.”
Student groups say Columbia’s support for Israeli students constitutes ‘discrimination against Palestinians’
Meanwhile at Columbia, a longer statement from student Palestinian solidarity groups said they would mourn “the tragic losses experienced by both Palestinians and Israelis” while also asserting, “The weight of responsibility for the war and casualties undeniably lies with the Israeli extremist government and other Western governments, including the U.S. government, which fund and staunchly support Israeli aggression, apartheid and settler-colonization.”
It adds, “If every political avenue available to Palestinians is blocked, we should not be surprised when resistance and violence break out.”
The letter goes on to call on Columbia to end its connections with Israel, including its center in Tel Aviv and partnership with Tel Aviv University, and criticizes university statements to students about the attacks as “discrimination against Palestinians” for only mentioning Israeli students. (One such email was sent to the university’s School of General Studies, which is popular among Israeli military veterans.)
Two dozen student groups had signed the letter as of Wednesday morning, representing Palestinians, women of color, South Asian law students and queer and trans people of color, among others. As in the Harvard letter, an anti-Zionist Jewish group, the Columbia chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, also signed. Emails sent to the group via a listed email address bounced back.
Without referencing the letter, the president of Columbia’s law student senate issued his own statement condemning the Hamas attacks.
Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, issued her own statement on the conflict Monday. “I was devastated by the horrific attack on Israel this weekend and the ensuing violence that is affecting so many people,” wrote Shafik, an Egyptian-born legal scholar and former World Bank executive who is in her first semester heading the university. The school hosted former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on a webinar Tuesday to discuss the situation in Israel.
A prominent NYU student leader blames Israel — and loses a post-graduation job offer
While the Harvard and Columbia letters were made up of smaller student groups, NYU’s originated with a more prominent student leader. On the front page of the law school student bar association’s newsletter this week, their president stated, “I want to express, first and foremost, my unwavering and absolute solidarity with Palestinians in their resistance against oppression toward liberation and self-determination. Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life.”
New York University School of Law, Nov. 6, 2021. (ajay_suresh via Creative Commons)
Refusing to condemn “Palestinian resistance,” Ryna Workman instead provided a long list of other things they condemned, including “the violence of apartheid,” “the violence of collective punishment,” and “the violence in removing historical context.” They concluded, “Palestine will be free.”
Workman’s statement upset Jewish law students at NYU, with some exploring whether they can be removed from their presidency. “The SBA President’s statement was shocking,” current law student Nathaniel Berman told JTA. “I am hoping for a forceful response from the administration, but not holding my breath.”
David Friedman, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Israel under President Donald Trump and is an NYU law school alum, called on his fellow alumni to “cut them off” and not to hire “a single one of their students” over Workman’s letter. “If this is their takeaway from the Hamas massacre of 1000 Jews, let’s hope their next organization is called ‘The Idiot Unemployed Lawyers Association,” he wrote on X.
Late Tuesday, the law firm of Winston & Strawn, which had extended an offer of employment to Workman, announced in a statement that it had rescinded the offer.
“These comments are profoundly in conflict with Winstron & Strawn’s values as a firm,” the unsigned statement read. “Winston stands in solidarity with Israel’s right to exist in peace and condemns Hamas and the violence and destruction it has ignited in the strongest terms possible.”
The dean of NYU’s law school, Troy McKenzie, also condemned Workman’s letter in an email to students Tuesday afternoon. The message, McKenzie wrote, “certainly does not express my own views, because I condemn the killing of civilians and acts of terrorism as always reprehensible.”
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US Says That Israel Accepts Gaza Ceasefire Plan; Hamas Cool to It
A picture released by the Israeli Army says to show Israeli soldiers conducting operations in a location given as Tel Al-Sultan area, Rafah Governorate, Gaza, in this handout image released April 2, 2025. Photo: Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS
Israel has agreed to a US ceasefire proposal for Gaza, the White House said on Thursday, and Hamas said it was reviewing the plan although its terms did not meet the Palestinian terrorist group’s demands.
As a US-backed system for distributing food aid in the war-torn enclave expanded, Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the families of hostages held in Gaza that Israel had accepted a deal presented by US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
Netanyahu’s office did not confirm the reports, but White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters in Washington that Israel had signed off on the proposal.
She did not detail its contents. But the New York Times quoted an Israeli official familiar with the proposal as saying the initial phase would include a 60-day ceasefire and humanitarian aid flowing through UN-run operations.
Hamas said it was studying the proposal, and senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters the group was still discussing it.
But Abu Zuhri said its terms echoed Israel‘s position and do not contain commitments to end the war, withdraw Israeli troops, or admit aid as Hamas has demanded.
Deep differences between Hamas and Israel have stymied previous attempts to restore a ceasefire that broke down in March after only two months.
Israel has insisted that Hamas disarm completely and be dismantled as a military and governing force and that all 58 hostages still held in Gaza must be returned before it will agree to end the war.
Hamas has rejected the demand to give up its weapons and says Israel must pull its troops out of Gaza and commit to ending the war.
Witkoff told reporters on Wednesday that Washington was close to “sending out a new term sheet” about a ceasefire to the two sides in the conflict that has raged since October 2023.
“I have some very good feelings about getting to a long-term resolution, temporary ceasefire and a long-term resolution, a peaceful resolution, of that conflict,” Witkoff said then.
Israel has come under increasing international pressure, with many European countries that have normally been reluctant to criticize it openly demanding an end to the war and a major relief effort.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the devastating Hamas attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage into Gaza.
The post US Says That Israel Accepts Gaza Ceasefire Plan; Hamas Cool to It first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘A Slap in the Face’: Chicago Venue Cancels Plans to Screen Documentary About Antisemitism for Second Time
Israeli-American rapper Kosha Dillz performs his new song “Bring the family home,” his response to Hamas’s attacks, in front of a Jewish bakery in lower Manhattan, US, Oct. 11, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Aleksandra Michalska
A Chicago theater that canceled the screening of a documentary about campus antisemitism and then agreed to reschedule a showing has now made the final decision not to screen the film at its venue after facing harassment, it announced on Tuesday.
The Facets Film Forum, which operates the Facets arts theater in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, claimed in a statement that Israeli-American Jewish filmmaker and rapper Kosha Dillz and the Chicago Jewish Alliance (CJA) – which helped organize the original screening that was canceled — have allegedly engaged in harassment against the venue, making it “impossible” for the Facets to move forward with a showing of “Bring the Family Home.” The documentary covers the rise of antisemitism on US college campuses after the Hamas terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. This is the first film directed by Kosha Dillz, whose real name is Rami Even-Esh, and it focuses largely on anti-Israel encampments and sentiments at DePaul University and Northwestern University. Facets is located down the street from DePaul.
A rough cut of “Bring the Family Home” was set to premiere at Facets on May 13, but mere hours before the screening, the venue canceled the event, citing safety and security concerns for its patrons and staff. After facing an abundance of criticism from Kosha Dillz, CJA, and their supporters, Facets agreed to work with the filmmaker to reschedule the screening for later this summer.
“Facets Film Forum respects the First Amendment, its protections of free speech and the right to express views through film,” Facets said in a statement on May 16. “We regret any unintended offense our decision to cancel a privately organized, public film screening caused the filmmaker, those seeking to attend the event, and members of our community who have experienced or witnessed oppression or discrimination in any form.”
However, this week the theater has backtracked on its decision to reschedule the screening, before it even announced a new date for the event.
“Rather than acknowledging the legitimacy of our concerns and decisions, CJA and the filmmaker, and individuals that appear to be their supporters, have engaged in harassing Facets,” the venue claimed. It alleged that supporters of the film were “vilifying” Facets in an email campaign targeting donors, arts groups, and others, and even shared “vicious” posts on social media “attacking Facets.” The posts allegedly included offers for a “bounty to anyone willing to burn down Facets’ building,” which Facets reported to authorities. The venue also claimed that supporters of “Bring the Family Home” recording a conversation with a Facets staff members without consent and then posted it online, sharing personal contact details.
CJA launched an email campaign earlier this month that urged its supporters to reach out to Facets about the cancellation on May 13. CJA claimed the venue called off the event “because of discomfort with Jewish visibility” and called the move “shameful” and “a disgrace.” Facets said on Tuesday that more than 2,500 emails were sent.
“Given these acts, we are ceasing any further discussions with CJA and Mr. Dillz. Facets will not tolerate harassment of its staff from any organization,” the theater said in the statement this week. “Facets will continue to remain committed to our mission and the safety of our staff and guests.”
Facets said that for five decades, it has “provided a safe space for the community to experience a vast variety of film perspectives.” The venue noted that it hosted an event as part of the Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema’s 20th Anniversary Celebration in March. Earlier this month, the theater also screened “No Other Land,” the Oscar-winning documentary that heavily criticizes Israel’s demolition of a village in the West Bank. “Bring the Family Home” was originally meant to be mentioned on the marquee outside of Facets along with “No Other Land,” said Kosha Dillz.
In its statement, Facets also listed three Jewish or Israel-themed movies that it has screened in the past, including “Come Closer,” “In Between,” and “Zone of Interest.” None of those films depict pro-Israel sentiments or a condemnation of antisemitism like “Bring the Family Home.”
Kosha Dillz told The Algemeiner on Thursday he cannot believe that he has been canceled twice by the same venue, which has not screened his film even once. “I was quite shocked,” he said. “It’s exhausting to deal with this for the second time. How can they cancel a film twice that hasn’t been shown once. To me, that’s just representative of what the Jewish community has to deal with.”
He also denied taking part in the alleged harassment that Facets claimed it faced, including the email campaign and calls online to burn down the venue.
“The 2,500 emails — those are people that aren’t related to me. I don’t know them. Obviously, they know me,” he noted. “They made it seem as if I was the one who rallied people to email them and take away their funding. That’s obviously not true.”
Even now, after Facets made the final decision not to screen “Bring the Family Home,” Kosha Dillz does not support efforts to attack the venue for the move.
“I don’t think bullying people who have gotten bullied makes sense. I don’t think that’s a win-win situation,” he explained. “I don’t believe in people ganging up on them. I just think they were bullied by other bullies.”
Kosha Dillz had multiple Zoom meetings and sent several emails back and forth with leaders at Facet to reschedule a screening of “Bring the Family Home,” hoping to find a new date for the event. Following the decision by Facets this week to call off all efforts for a screening, Kosha Dillz told The Algemeiner that he is upset but will now focus his time and energy on finding a new venue to screen the documentary.
“It’s called selective Jewishness,” he said of the move by Facets. “They are picking which voices they get to hear and they’re letting other people define it for them. I was the one who offered for them to make it good [after the initial cancellation] and they took me up on it and then, you know … it’s kind of a slap in the face. But the first time, shame on them. The second time, shame on me.”
On Wednesday, CJA released a statement on social media in response to Facets decision this week and also the allegations against the Jewish group.
“We objected, respectfully and publicly, to the theater’s sudden about-face. We sent emails. We asked questions. We defended a Jewish voice that refused to conform to the approved script. For that, they accused us of harassment,” CJA said. “If Facets believes in free speech, it must apply to Jews who are visible, assertive, and yes, Zionist. Anything less is not inclusion. It’s performance. We remain proud partners of ‘Bring the Family Home’ and of every Jewish artist who refuses to stay quiet just to stay included.”
CJA also accused Facets of “cultural exclusion” and “soft censorship,” making “endless excuses” and “shifting standards for what qualifies as ‘appropriate’ Jewish expression.”
CJA said “Bring the Family Home” will be shown in Chicago on June 22, but a venue has yet to be secured.
The post ‘A Slap in the Face’: Chicago Venue Cancels Plans to Screen Documentary About Antisemitism for Second Time first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Part of Our Commitment to the Palestinian People’: Anti-Israel Group Vandalizes Jewish-Owned Business in London
Vandals targeted a Jewish-owned real estate business in London on May 28-29, 2025. Photo: Screenshot
A Jewish-owned real estate business in London was vandalized by a radical anti-Israel group overnight on Wednesday into Thursday in an attack that local Jewish leaders called a “traumatic antisemitic targeting.”
Video shows two masked people dressed in all black smashing the windows of the business — which is located in Stamford Hill, a heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood — and spraying it with red paint. Pictures in the aftermath of the vandalism show shattered glass and red paint all over the office, and other reports say computers and furniture were also wrecked.
Last night in London’s Stamford Hill: A Jewish business completely destroyed by vandals who spray-painted “Drop Elbit”—targeting a company with NO ties to Israel whatsoever. Jewish businesses. Jewish people. Targeted for being Jewish. pic.twitter.com/JruV4Si4J9
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) May 29, 2025
“This should be treated as [an] antisemitic incident without any doubt,” Rabbi Herschel Gluck, president of Jewish security service Shomrim’s branch in Stamford Hill, told the Jewish Chronicle. “[The owners] are visibly Jewish; the people who run the business and this business itself have nothing to do with Israel.”
According to the Chronicle, the authorities were “called as soon as the damage was discovered on Thursday morning and the Metropolitan Police were notified shortly afterwards.”
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that the investigation is ongoing and that no arrests have been made so far. “This incident is being treated as racially aggravated criminal damage,” the statement continued.
“We understand the concern this may cause members of the Jewish community,” the police noted. “Officers are working with community leaders and patrols have increased across the local area.”
Palestine Action, the group behind the vandalism, took responsibility for it on social media.
BREAKING: Palestine Action target the London-based landlords of Kent’s Elbit weapons factory, Instro Precision.
Instro Precision continues to export targeting gear to Israel, making both the Israeli weapons maker and its landlord, perpetrators of genocide. pic.twitter.com/TDN2yrEump
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) May 29, 2025
“Palestine Action target[s] the London-based landlords of Kent’s Elbit weapons factory, Instro Precision,” the group posted on X. “Instro Precision continues to export targeting gear to Israel, making both the Israeli weapons maker and its landlord, perpetrators of genocide.”
Along with vandalism of the business itself, “Drop Elbit” was also spray-painted on the pavement outside it, referring to Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense firm that is an industry leader.
A spokesperson for the group said the attack was a “part of our commitment to the Palestinian people” because “we will not allow companies on our doorstep to profit from mass murder.” The real estate group, it claimed, is “the [landlord] of a Kent-based Israeli weapons factory which is exporting targeting gear for the Israeli military.”
However, according to Gluck, the attack “is pure antisemitism” because “the people have no connection to Israel at all. They [the vandals] are accusing this company of having a connection to an Israeli arms manufacturer, which is not true.”
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) responded to the vandalism on X, asking, “Why is Palestine Action still not banned?”
“Palestine Action is a criminal enterprise operating freely in the UK and terrorizing the Jewish community,” it wrote. “It must be banned and its organizers and activists prosecuted.”
This latest vandalism is part of a general spike in antisemitism in the UK.
The UK experienced its second-worst year for antisemitism in 2024, despite recording an 18 percent drop in antisemitic incidents from the previous year’s all-time high, according to a report released in February.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, released data showing it recorded 3,528 antisemitic incidents for 2024, a drop of 18 percent from the 4,296 in 2023. These numbers compare to 1,662 antisemitic incidents in 2022, 2,261 in 2021, and 1,684 in 2020.
Last year’s total “is a reflection of the sustained levels of antisemitism that have been recorded across the UK since the Hamas terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023,” CST said of its findings. “CST’s Antisemitic Incidents Report 2023 charted the immediacy and scope of the rise in anti-Jewish hate following that attack, before Israel had set in motion any extensive military response in Gaza.”
The post ‘Part of Our Commitment to the Palestinian People’: Anti-Israel Group Vandalizes Jewish-Owned Business in London first appeared on Algemeiner.com.