Rep. Elise Stefanik and other Harvard University alumni in Congress are calling on Harvard President Claudine Gay to resign after she released a new statement on the attack on Israel that didn’t condemn students who blamed Israel for the attack.
“Harvard continues to disgrace itself on the global stage,” Ms. Stefanik posted on X. “Antisemitism should be condemned and NEVER defended as ‘free expression.’ Claudine Gay should resign.”
Ms. Stefanik, along with six other Republican members of Congress who have graduated from Harvard, wrote a letter to Ms. Gay on Friday to “express our outrage and profound disappointment” over the statement made by the students.
The members of Congress — including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, and Reps. Dan Crenshaw of Texas, Kevin Kiley of California and Brian Mast of Florida — wrote that the letter “should have warranted an immediate unequivocal condemnation from yourself and Harvard University leadership.”
“Any voice that excuses the slaughter of innocent women, children, and babies has chosen the side of evil and terrorism,” they wrote. “Harvard University must publicly condemn this statement and make it clear that it opposes violence against Israeli citizens.”
In a video posted on the Ivy League’s YouTube page, Ms. Gay said the university rejects terrorism, hate, and harassment of any groups of people, and embraces free expression “even to views that many of us find objectionable, even outrageous.”
People were outraged over an earlier joint statement that a group of more than 30 Harvard University student organizations released after the attack saying that the “Israeli regime” is “entirely responsible” for the surprise assault from Hamas that has killed more than 1,000 Israelis.
“We do not punish or sanction people for expressing such views,” Ms. Gay said in the video. “But that is a far cry from endorsing them. It’s in the exercise of our freedom to speak that we reveal our characters and we reveal the character of our institution.”
She did not mention the students or the joint statement.
The letter titled “Joint Statement by Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the Situation in Palestine,” had over 30 university clubs sign it, including the school’s Amnesty International affiliate, Harvard Jews for Liberation, the Harvard Islamic Society and more.
“We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” the letter read. “[The] events did not occur in a vacuum. For the last two decades, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison.”
The student organization’s letter said that the “apartheid regime is the only one to blame.”
It immediately sparked backlash from people, including lawmakers and university alumni, who called for the students to be punished.
On Monday, the university released a more general statement about the attack. On Tuesday, Ms. Gay released a statement saying that those students do not represent the university.
“Such inhumanity is abhorrent, whatever one’s individual views of the origins of long-standing conflicts in the region,” Ms. Gay said Tuesday.
Days after the letter was released by the students, a billboard truck drove near Harvard’s campus displaying the names and photos of the students whose organizations signed the letter. Some students and their groups have taken back their endorsements.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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