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‘Ethnonationalist Project’: Harvard Program Director Resigns to Protest New Antisemitism Policies

Demonstrators take part in an “Emergency Rally: Stand With Palestinians Under Siege in Gaza,” amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, Oct. 14, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder

An employee of the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) has resigned from his position to protest the university’s recent enactment of policies aimed at combating antisemitism and the spreading of blood libels by its faculty.

Jay Ulfelder, program director of the Nonviolent Action Lab at HKS’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, shared the resignation letter he sent to his employers on the social media platform Blue Sky on Friday. In it, he accused Harvard University of quelling criticism of what he described as “Israeli apartheid and genocide” and declared that he finds intolerable Harvard’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism  and choosing to recognize Zionism as a central component of Jewish identity.

“The university’s recent decision to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism gave me the final push,” Ulfelder wrote, enumerating beliefs widely perceived as antisemitic by Jewish civil rights activists and scholars. “I know that Zionism is an ethnonationalist project, and that ethnonationalist projects inevitably involve racism and authoritarian governance and violent boundary maintenance. I know that Israel’s brutal campaign in Gaza over the past 16 months is a genocide punctuating a 76-year history of violent dispossession and subordination of the Palestinian people.”

He continued, “I know that political and material support for Israel from the US government, corporations, and cultural and educational institutions has been and remains fundamental to that endeavor. And I know that mass mobilization in the US can play an important supporting role in ending that genocide and helping to create space for real Palestinian liberation.”

Ulfelder then admitted that uttering his beliefs “in public” may constitute a violation of “the university’s anti-discrimination policies” and “[harm] the work the Lab and the Ash Center.” He added that while he has “decided to leave the institution,” he is certain that many others employed by HKS and the Ash Center “share my basic values and are trying hard to embody them.”

The director’s resignation, which becomes effective on Feb. 5, was precipitated by a previously reported civil settlement in which Harvard University agreed to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism to its non-discrimination and anti-bullying policies, recognize the centrality of Zionism to Jewish identity, and explicitly state that targeting an individual on the basis of their Zionism constitutes a violation of school rules.

That agreement resolved claims brought by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Students Against Antisemitism (SAA) in 2024. The Brandeis Center alleged that the university’s neglecting to discipline a professor whose mistreatment of Israeli-Jewish students was confirmed by a third-party investigator violated civil rights protections mandated by federal law. SAA, citing similar legal infractions, alleged that the university failed to address an explosion of antisemitic behavior on the campus, including harassment and hate speech.

The IHRA definition of antisemitism, to which Ulfelder expressed his strongest objection, is widely accepted by Jewish groups and lawmakers across the political spectrum, and used by hundreds of governing institutions, including the US State Department, European Union, and United Nations.

According to the definition, antisemitism “is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” It provides 11 specific, contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere. Beyond classic antisemitic behavior associated with the likes of the medieval period and Nazi Germany, the examples include denial of the Holocaust and newer forms of antisemitism targeting Israel such as demonizing the Jewish state, denying its right to exist, and holding it to standards not expected of any other democratic state.

Jewish and non-Jewish civil rights activists and lawmakers called on the university to adopt the IHRA definition ever since Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 descended Harvard into the most turbulent chapter of its history.

As scenes of Hamas terrorists abducting children and desecrating dead bodies circulated worldwide, 31 student groups at Harvard, led by the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) issued a statement blaming Israel for the attack and accusing the Jewish state of operating an “open air prison” in Gaza, despite that the Israeli military withdrew from the territory in 2005. In the weeks that followed, anti-Zionists stormed the campus screaming “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “globalize the intifada,” terrorizing Jewish students and preventing some from attending class.

Observers of the situation there, both on and off campus, accused Harvard of fostering a culture of racial grievance and antisemitism, while important donors suspended funding for prestigious academic programs. Later, its first Black president, Claudine Gay — who refused to explicitly denounce antisemitic speech until the public turned against her — resigned in disgrace after being outed as a serial plagiarist, ending the shortest tenure of any Harvard president.

Faculty also engaged in controversial conduct. In one incident in February 2024, an anti-Zionist faculty group shared an antisemitic cartoon depicting a left-hand tattooed with a Star of David, which contained a dollar sign at its center, dangling a Black man and an Arab man from a noose. The cartoon’s subtext was that Jewish money oppresses Arabs and African Americans.

Harvard, America’s oldest and arguably most important institution of higher education, has now agreed, on paper, to begin the work of eradicating antisemitic discrimination from its campus. In announcing its settlement with the Brandeis Center and Students Against Antisemitism, it proclaimed its “enduring commitment to ensuring our Jewish students. faculty, and staff are embraced, respected, and supported.”

As for Ulfelder, he boasted in his resignation letter about being privileged enough to endure unemployment rather than be a part of Harvard’s antidiscrimination initiatives.

“Lots of people can’t afford to quit their jobs; I’m very lucky that I can,” he concluded. “The university administration’s deepening repression of activism against the genocide in Palestine has now devalued and degraded that asset to an extent that I personally can no longer tolerate.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post ‘Ethnonationalist Project’: Harvard Program Director Resigns to Protest New Antisemitism Policies first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.

Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.

“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”

GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’

Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.

“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.

“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.

“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.

After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”

RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL

Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”

Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.

“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”

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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco

Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.

People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.

“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”

Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.

On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.

Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.

On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.

“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.

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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.

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