Over 100 Harvard faculty members signed a letter to the university president declaring that labeling Israel an “apartheid state” and accusing the country of committing genocide against Palestinians should not automatically be considered anti-Semitism. The letter accused Harvard University President Claudine Gay of enforcing a “one-sided” debate about Israel by preventing students and faculty from criticizing the Jewish state. “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 document stated. “It is important to acknowledge the patronizing tone and format of much of the criticism you have received as well as the outright racism contained in some of it.”

The faculty members wrote the letter in response to Gay's Nov. 9 directive, titled “Combating Antisemitism,” which announced the plan to implement a program intended to educate Harvard students and staff about anti-Semitism. In the directive, Gay condemned the phrase “from the river to the sea,” noting that the phrase calls for the eradication of Jews and Israel and is harmful to the Jewish community. In their letter, the faculty members expressed understanding that Gay would want to highlight the importance of language following Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault against civilians in Israel that killed over 1,200 people. The terrorist group has called for the murder of the Jewish people, and Hamas members have bragged about the Jews they killed on Oct. 7.

While the faculty agreed that certain language merits condemnation, they argued that it is not anti-Semitic to criticize the Israeli government or to compare it to “ethno-nationalist” governments, like dictator Robert Mugabe’s government in Zimbabwe. “Nor can arguments that characterize Israel as an ‘apartheid’ state or its recent actions as ‘ethnic cleansing’ or even ‘genocide’ be considered automatically antisemitic, regardless of whether one concurs with such arguments,” the letter stated. The letter asserts that the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine must be free” is a matter of debate, stating that the history behind the slogan is “complicated.” “Its interpretation deserves, and is receiving, sustained and ongoing inquiry and debate,” the letter reads.

The faculty also cited numbers from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry to imply that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, over 11,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes and a ground invasion seeking to eradicate Hamas, a terrorist group that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007.

Days before beginning its ground invasion, Israel urged the over 1 million civilians in northern Gaza to flee to the south. Israel maintains it has the right to defend its citizens from the threat of Hamas and is doing all it can to prevent civilian casualties. Israel has accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields. The letter concluded with a list of steps for the Harvard president to support “intellectual freedom” at the university, including the creation of “an advisory group on Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism.”

The faculty members requested Gay resist calls to suspend the Palestine Solidarity Committee for releasing a statement holding Israel responsible for the violence committed against it. Several student groups that signed onto the letter — including Amnesty International at Harvard, Harvard College Act on a Dream and the Harvard Undergraduate Nepali Student Association — later withdrew their signatures. A spokesperson for Act on a Dream claimed at the time that its board members were unaware that the organization had signed the letter, which does not reflect AOD's views on the situation in Israel.

Biblical Connections: The Israeli people have been hated throughout their history in both the Old and New Testaments and throughout much of world history. It should not surprise us that Satan has continued to attack the Jews in our modern time.

PRAY: Pray that this movement of hatred against the Jewish people will be stopped and that God would continue to protect them.