Jewish orgs respond to 'despicable' statement from Harvard student groups after Hamas attacks
'These wrong-headed student voices are more pronounced in light of the administration’s failure to speak out quickly and firmly against the atrocities,' said Brandeis Center founder Kenneth Marcus.
Over 30 student organizations at Harvard University issued a joint statement on Sunday, asserting that Israel is “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” following Hamas’ weekend attack.
Kenneth Marcus—founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under the Law—told Campus Reform in an Oct. 10 statement that “It is reprehensible, to say the least, that so many Harvard student organizations are taking the wrong side on this massacre.”
“When so many people are being slaughtered, raped, and their corpses desecrated, it shouldn’t be difficult to decide whether you are on the side of the murderers or the victims,” he continued. “And yet all of these Harvard students are rushing to join the wrong side—the side of the perpetrators.”
“These wrong-headed student voices are more pronounced in light of the administration’s failure to speak out quickly and firmly against the atrocities, just as they spoke out when Russian [sic] invaded Ukraine,” Marcus added.
Marcus criticized the administration’s prioritization of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) prioritization, claiming that it has “allowed such bigotry to grow unchecked. It is also a sign of something rotten in Harvard’s admissions program, that they have admitted these people.”
[RELATED: Q+A: An executive director’s fight against anti-Semitism]
Campus Reform also contacted the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which pointed to an organizational statement released in an Oct. 8 X post.
“With over 700 Israeli dead, many more wounded, and Hamas claiming 130 Israelis including children captive, the joint statement by Harvard student groups blaming Israel for these acts of a foreign terrorist organization is despicable,” it reads.
ADL’s statement concluded with “@Harvard must disavow or be seen as complicit in this antisemitism that should have no place on campus.”
