Harvard President Hit by Faculty for Israel Stand

More than 100 Harvard professors signed an open letter this week criticizing President Claudine Gay for bowing to alumni and donor pressure to combat antisemitism on campus.

Last week, Gay condemned the pro-Palestine slogan "from the river to the sea," which the Anti-Defamation League has labeled antisemitic.

The outraged faculty claim the Ivy League leader is violating the free speech rights of anti-Israel students on campus.

"As Harvard faculty, we have been astonished by the pressure from donors, alumni, and even some on this campus to silence faculty, students and staff critical of the actions of the State of Israel," the open letter begins.

They specifically took issue with Gay's message titled "Combating Antisemitism" last Thursday for shutting down debate.

"It cannot be ruled ipso facto antisemitic to question the actions of this particular ethno-nationalist government, any more than it would be ipso facto racist to question the actions of Robert Mugabe's ethno-nationalist government in Zimbabwe."

The professors want an advisory group on Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism.

Gay said she would work with the newly formed antisemitism advisory group after telling more than 200 Jewish students and their family members that "antisemitism has a very long and shameful history at Harvard."

She added, "For years, this university has done too little to confront its continuing presence. No longer."

Harvard alumni recently launched a "one dollar pledge" to condemn the university's response to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel.

The open letter was penned by the newly formed Harvard College Jewish Alumni Association to protest the school's failure to "condemn swiftly and unequivocally the brutal massacre of Israeli civilians."

"We never thought that, at Harvard College, we would have to argue the point that terrorism against civilians demands immediate and unequivocal condemnation," the group wrote. "We never thought we would have to argue for recognition of our own humanity."

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a Harvard Law School graduate, told Fox News his alma mater is at the center of major institutions "captured by the radical left."