Israel-Palestine war: Harvard board keeps president amid uproar over testimony

Harvard President Claudine Gay will remain in her position, the university’s governing body said on Tuesday, fending off calls from high-powered donors and politicians to remove her following her testimony to Congress over the Israel-Palestine war.

“In this tumultuous and difficult time, we unanimously stand in support of President Gay,” the Harvard Corporation, the college’s top governance board, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Gay was one of three top university presidents, along with Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to testify at a congressional hearing on antisemitism on 5 December.

In an exchange with Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik that went viral, all three presidents evaded directly answering whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated their schools' bullying and harassment policies.

“It can be, depending on the context,” said Magill, adding shortly after that “antisemitic rhetoric, when it crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation, that is actionable conduct, and we do take action”.

Stefanik repeatedly asserted during the hearings that the slogans "from the river to the sea" and "globalize the intifada" were tantamount to calls for genocide.

The fallout from the hearing became a microcosm of the divide sweeping US public opinion, especially on university campuses which have become a battleground between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli student groups.

'One down. Two to go.'

Magill resigned from MIT four days after her testimony, leading to an ominous social media post from Stefanik, “One down. Two to go.”

Pro-Israel lawmakers and wealthy donors - including hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman - called for Gay to resign, but hundreds of Harvard faculty members, students and alumni also came to her defence.

The decision to retain Gay is unlikely to end the tension at Harvard and other universities.

Gay, who is the university’s first Black female president, told the Harvard Crimson student newspaper last week that she was “sorry” for her remarks and that “words matter”.

In its statement, the university’s governing body noted Hamas’s “brutal terrorist attack” on Israel and said “calls for genocide are despicable and contrary to fundamental human values".

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“President Gay has apologized for how she handled her congressional testimony and has committed to redoubling the University’s fight against antisemitism,” the statement added.

The Israel-Palestine war erupted after Hamas led an attack on Israel on 7 October that killed at least 1,140 people, mainly Israeli civilians. Over 2oo Israelis and foreign nationals were also dragged back to Gaza, and while some were released in a prisoner exchange deal, many are still being held captive. 

Israel responded with a ferocious bombardment of the Strip and invasion that has killed more than 18,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children.

While pro-Israeli voices zeroed in on Gay’s testimony, pro-Palestinian voices at universities say they are enduring censorship and verbal abuse amid a stifling climate around Palestinian activism.

An overwhelming majority of US-based academics focused on the Middle East report having to self-censor their criticism of Israel since the war began because they are concerned about campus culture and offending students, along with coming under pressure from external advocacy groups.

Gay is likely to come under continued political pressure.

Stefanik, a Harvard graduate, slammed her alma mater for a moral failure at a news conference on Tuesday. She has said the Republican-controlled committee where Gay appeared was launching an investigation into Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania.