Harvard moves medical program away from controversial Palestinian university with terror ties
Birzeit University is a controversial school with apparent ties to terrorism, and has repeatedly criticized Israel, including shortly after the Oct. 7 massacre.
Five students from Birzeit University were arrested recently while plotting a terrorist attack.
Harvard University recently announced it will not host a medical course at a controversial Palestinian university accused of having ties to terrorism this year.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts institution decided to move its “Palestine Social Medicine Course” (PSMC), which began Monday, from Birzeit University in the West Bank to Jordan, a Harvard spokesman told The Daily Wire. The spokesman cited “security concerns in the West Bank.”
Harvard’s François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights helps to run the PSMC.
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According to Harvard’s web page describing the PSMC, the program “is designed to introduce students to the social, structural, political, and historical aspects that determine Palestinian health beyond the biological basis of disease” and aims to “[d]evelop student appreciation for the need to be historically deep and geographically broad in their approach to understanding the complexities of health inequity.”
A lawsuit targeting Harvard, which has ties to Birzeit, stated that Birzeit glorifies terrorism and has some ties to the terrorist group, Hamas: “Birzeit’s buildings and events are named after convicted terrorists; military parades on campus feature students wearing mock explosive vests while waving Hamas flags; in May 2022, Hamas won the majority of Birzeit student government seats; and, two weeks before the October 7 massacre, eight students were arrested with weapons and plans to carry out a terrorist attack.”
The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, revealed on Sunday that five Hamas members who are also members of Birzeit’s student council were arrested for planning a terrorist attack.
The Palestinian university has also criticized Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 massacre.
In an open letter published on Oct. 15, shortly after the Oct. 7 massacre, Birzeit blamed the Jewish State for “genocide” because of its counterattack against Hamas, urging international universities to “take concrete action to stop the genocidal war against the Palestinian people and to end Israeli settler colonialism in Palestine.”
The letter also claimed that Israel was founded on “racist ideology,” and that “what is happening in Gaza is nothing but a new chapter of genocide.”
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Birzeit also seemed to endorse the idea of “Intifada,” or armed violent uprising against Israel, posting to X on Dec. 8: “On this day 36 years ago, the first intifada started from Jabaliya camp, and later spread throughout all of palestine; portraying a perfect example of national unity in the face of the oppression.”
A Harvard official, speaking about Birzeit students’ ties to Hamas, previously said: “Student government elections at Birzeit typically involve candidates affiliated with each of the major political parties in the region, including Hamas. These student government elections are not germane to and have not affected the FXB Center’s work with the scholars and students at Birzeit’s Institute of Community and Public Health.”
Campus Reform has reached out to Harvard University and Birzeit University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.