Harvard anti-Semitism task force leader who once called Israel a 'regime of apartheid' backs out of anti-Semitism panel
Harvard Professor Derek Penslar backed out of a panel on anti-Semitism, saying that ‘it would not be appropriate for me to make public comments at this time.’
Penslar has faced criticism for his past statements against Israel, including accusing Israel of 'apartheid' in a letter that he co-signed.
Harvard University’s new anti-Semitism task force co-chair, Professor Derek Penslar, recently went back on a commitment to attend a panel on anti-Semitism.
The panel, sponsored by the Center for Jewish History in New York City, took place on Jan. 28 and was titled “What is Antisemitism? Definitions and Debates.” The panel dealt with “competing definitions of antisemitism, examining how they relate to the controversial notion of antizionism, and determining how both terms have been affected by Hamas’s terror attack against Israel,” according to the event page.
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Before he canceled his appearance, Penslar was due to be one of four participants, alongside Kenneth Marcus, founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network, and the moderator, Professor Gavriel Rosenfeld, president of the Center for Jewish History.
Penslar issued a statement explaining his absence that read: “I am mindful of my role as co-chair of the Harvard Task Force on Combating Anti-Semitism. And since at the symposium I would invariably be asked to speak about the goings-on at Harvard, and since the task force is only now just being put together, and its plan of action is being formed, it would not be appropriate for me to make public comments at this time,” as reported in The New York Post.
Harvard’s decision to appoint Penslar as co-chair of the anti-Semitism task force has drawn controversy because of his past anti-Israeli comments and other remarks about anti-Semitism, as Campus Reform previously covered.
In August 2023, Campus Reform also reported that the Harvard professor co-signed a letter that stated: “Without equal rights for all, whether in one state, two states, or in some other political framework, there is always a danger of dictatorship. There cannot be democracy for Jews in Israel as long as Palestinians live under a regime of apartheid.”
The letter also argued that “the ultimate purpose” of judicial reforms in Israel is to “tighten restrictions on Gaza, deprive Palestinians of equal rights both beyond the Green Line [that divides Israel and the West Bank] and within it, annex more land, and ethnically cleanse all territories under Israeli rule of their Palestinian population.”
In his 2023 book, Zionism: An Emotional State, Penslar wrote that “Jewish culture was steeped in fantasies (and occasionally, acts) of vengeance against Christians” and that “Israel’s dispossession of Palestinians from their land and oppression of those who remain have made it one of the most disliked countries on the planet,” according to to Fox News.
Campus Reform has contacted Harvard University and Professor Penslar for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
