The presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT sit for the December 5 congressional hearing. Photo: C-SPAN.
By Natalia Marques – Dec 19, 2023
The December 5 hearing of three elite university presidents slandered the Palestine solidarity movement on college campuses
On December 5, the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania were grilled in a congressional hearing relating to alleged instances of calls for the genocide of Jewish people—instances which were, in reality, Palestine solidarity protests led and organized by students. The fallout from this hearing, in which the Presidents were repeatedly pressured by right-wing Congress members to denounce pro-Palestine students, has led to the resignation of one President and escalating calls for the resignation of the other two by pro-Israel conservatives. The hearing also illustrated the repeated attacks on the student movement for Palestine in the US.
A particular focus of the pro-Zionist leaders of the hearing, such as Republican Elise Stefanik, was to push the university Presidents to say that their students, in chanting “from the river to the sea” and “long live the intifada,” were calling for the genocide of Jewish people.
“Will admissions offers be rescinded or any disciplinary action be taken against students or applicants who say, From the river to the sea, or intifada, advocating for the murder of Jews,” Stefanik asked Claudine Gay, who is the President of Harvard University. Within Stefanik’s question was the implication that pro-Palestine demonstrations at Harvard, led by students, were “advocating for the murder of Jews.”
Important to note is that Stefanik’s concern for Jewish people appears to be new—last year, she endorsed Carl Paladino, who called Hitler “the kind of leader we need today,” for the House of Representatives.
Gay, for her part, clearly stumbled through the question, as the remaining two university presidents did when asked similar questions. “As I’ve said, that type of hateful, reckless, offensive speech is personally abhorrent to me,” said Gay, refusing to defend her students while at the same time showing unwillingness to take action against them.
“You’re saying today that no action will be taken. What action will be taken?” Stefanik asked her.
“When speech crosses into conduct that violates our policies, including policies against bullying, harassment, or intimidation, we take action and we have robust disciplinary processes that allow us to hold individuals accountable,” Gay answered.
As a result of the fallout from the hearing, the University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill published a public apology and resigned from her position following pressure from trustees. Claudine Gay has been able to maintain her position thus far, but is facing growing attacks by right-wing pundits who are hounding her with newfound plagiarism accusations. It is clear that such academic-based attacks are a thin cover for a growing desire to oust Gay for her lack of willingness to take disciplinary measures against pro-Palestine students. At the helm of such accusations are right-wing pundits such as Ben Shapiro and Christopher Rufo, the latter being responsible for demonizing the term “critical race theory” as a way to prevent the teaching of the US’s history of racism in public schools.
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At institutions such as Harvard, students involved in the Palestine solidarity movement have been under attack by wealthy and powerful zionists since October 8, when the student group Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee released a groundbreaking statement in solidarity with Palestine, and holding “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” of October 7. Shortly afterwards, students in the organizations who had signed onto the statement were systematically targeted by outsider right-wingers and billionaire alums.
Stefanik and other Congressmembers holding the hearing did not say a word about the students at multiple universities, including Harvard and Columbia, who have had their personal information released publicly due to their involvement in Palestine solidarity organizing. The three Palestinian students who were shot in a hate crime while they spoke Arabic and wore keffiyehs, one of whom will be paralyzed for life, only received one brief mention in the entire hearing.
“Doxxing trucks,” bankrolled by Adam Guillette, who runs the right-wing corporation Accuracy in Media, have circled these campuses with the names of students who are at all associated with the pro-Palestine movement on their campuses.
Kojo Acheampong, a Harvard student who was featured on one such truck circling the Harvard campus, has in fact faced disciplinary action for his Palestine solidarity organizing after leading a rally and a walkout, chanting “from the river to the sea.”
“It’s completely wrong to say that we’re calling for the genocide of Jews. In fact, we’re against all genocide. That’s why we stand with Palestine,” Acheampong told Peoples Dispatch.
“Those are liberatory chants. Intifada means shaking off. It means that the Palestinians are trying to shake off their oppression. They’re trying to live in dignity. They’re trying to live in peace. That’s what we’re calling for. We’re diametrically opposed to genocide.”
Of those leading the charge against the university presidents, Acheampong says they encompass those “who are against… initiatives to make people of color feel more comfortable on campuses.”
“It’s the right-wingers who don’t even want to teach things like Jim Crow apartheid right here in America. Those are the people who are making these accusations. that us students are somehow anti-semitic, or calling for the genocide of Jewish people. It’s these right-wing politicians who have constantly been on the wrong side of history who are saying this. And so we understand that in this moment, it’s actually a testament to our protests, and it’s a testament to us as organizers, that the ruling class feels so shaken up that they have to hold a hearing like this. It means that we’re making an impact.”
