Harvard Professors: Resist Right Wing attacks on the University and stop distracting from “humanitarian disaster zone” in Gaza, financed by US tax dollars
Cambridge - As the Harvard Corporation announced today that President Gay will remain in her position, Harvard faculty condemn right wing attacks on the university, and a political leadership of the nation which continues to offer unconditional support to Israel in spite of the fact that 2 out of 3 Americans support ceasefire. This is the latest distraction from what the UN has called a “humanitarian disaster zone” in Gaza.
“This mockery of a Congressional hearing has distracted the U.S. public from the matter at hand: our tax dollars and diplomatic cover are being used to support the mass killing of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza,” said Lara Jirmanus, Clinical Instructor at Harvard Medical School. “Even Israeli papers are writing that the Israeli military has “dropped the restraint” and an Israeli study has just shown that the proportion of civilians killed in Gaza is unprecedented when compared with any other conflict in the 20th century. The WHO and World Food Program say soon more people will die from starvation and disease than bombardment. Are we seriously discussing how best to punish college students for the chants they use to demand ceasefire?”
Right wing attacks on democracy and on the university are part of an increasingly damaging pattern of right-wing attacks on institutions of higher education and American democracy itself, perpetrated by many of the same people who voted against the certification of Biden’s 2020 presidential victory. Indeed 14 of the 25 Republicans on the Congressional Education committee, including U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) were election deniers. Stefanik has also been criticized for promoting the antisemitic “Great Replacement Theory.” Some speculate that Representative Stefanik may have had personal as well as political motivations for her hostile interrogation at the senate hearing. Stefanik was removed from an advisory committee at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2021 after she made unfounded claims of voter fraud in the November 2020 election and voted against certifying Biden’s electoral victory.
“We should never allow such nefarious outside forces, whether disingenuous far-right politicians or billionaire donors, to set the tone of a national conversation about dissent, equity, and tolerance on campus,” said Vijay Iyer, a professor of Music and African and African American Studies. “Harvard must protect all its students, especially the ones subjected to illegal doxxing and other egregious recriminations by entities with tenuous ties to the university. And it must take seriously the international humanitarian call for justice for Palestinians, which our students have been championing with such courage.”
“The attacks on President Gay have been precipitated by people who want to conflate anti-Zionism and anti-semitism to deflect attention from Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian people,” said Amir Mohareb, Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. “Students in New England who have demonstrated for Gaza and who have called for the protection of Palestinians have been relentlessly attacked.”
The ACLU has warned university presidents and leadership that a “surge in efforts to punish and silence students for their speech” is sweeping the country, targeting advocates of Palestinian rights. Faculty note that debates about Israel and Palestine represent only the latest issue in a wave of right-wing-extremist attacks on universities, including efforts to undermine tenure, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and the explosion of bills and laws aiming to censor college courses. Many of these attacks date back to the conservative 1971 Powell memo.
“Was it really a coincidence that Stefanik only chose to attack universities whose presidents were women, especially Harvard’s first Black woman president?” said Dr. Jirmanus “Or did they assume that women would be weak and forced to step down? We need to protect our universities from these pernicious racist and sexist outside influences. This looks suspiciously like the Great Replacement Theory in action.”
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