Harvard University to face lawsuit over campus antisemitism

Harvard University must face a lawsuit from students accusing the administration of not doing enough to protect Jewish students, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

The lawsuit was filed in January this year in Massachusetts federal court by six Jewish students who said they did not feel safe on campus. 

Filed eight days after Harvard’s President Claudine Gay resigned over accusations of mishandling antisemitism on campus, the lawsuit also accused Harvard of not punishing student protestors and faculty members for alleged acts of antisemitism.

In his decision, judge Richard Stearns from Boston said he found the accusations plausible that Harvard had been deliberately indifferent toward Jewish and Israeli students. 

"The facts as pled show that Harvard failed its Jewish students", the judge stated in his decision. 

Harvard had made efforts to dismiss the lawsuit in April, arguing that curtailing on-campus protests violates freedom of speech laws protected by the First Amendment.

In today's decision, the judge said he was "dubious" that Harvard could claim that protests in solidarity with Gaza were protected by the First Amendment.

Last December, Harvard University set up an eight-member antisemitism advisory group (AAG) to tackle "increased antisemitism on its campus", which had increased following Hamas’s 7 October attack on southern Israel. A similar task force was reportedly set up to tackle accusations of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bias. 

By May, the AAG produced a report presenting the administration with evidence suggesting antisemitic harassment to be a "significant problem" at the school. Middle East Eye reported that the university failed to adequately reply to students' concerns and act on the report's findings. 

Harvard University is not the only US university to face allegations of failing to protect students' safety, both Muslim and Jewish. 

In May, Columbia University and Emory College were the first universities to be federally investigated for anti-Muslim discrimination on campus. Columbia University agreed in June to provide safety escorts and take other steps to settle a lawsuit claiming its campus had become unsafe.