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The president of Harvard University has issued a public apology for comments she made during a congressional hearing on “anti-Semitism on American campuses,” amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
The details of the incident go back to Tuesday, when Claudine Gay, who has been president of the American University of Harvard since July 2023, was asked whether the calls for “genocide” of Jews were a violation of the Harvard Code of Conduct. Her answer did not contain direct approval.
“I’m sorry,” Gay said in an interview published on Friday by the university’s student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson.
She added: "I had to have my mind at that moment to return to the truth that guides me, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community and threats directed at our Jewish students have no place at Harvard University, and will not go unchallenged."
Guy and the other two participants in the five-hour hearing, the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), faced sharp criticism for their responses to questions from Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik.
Stefanik, who studied at Harvard, called on the presidents of these universities to resign, and announced on Wednesday that the House Education Committee “will open a formal investigation” in Congress against the three universities, “with the authority to issue subpoenas.”
The Democratic and Republican parties joined in rebuking the presidents of the three universities, while President Joe Biden issued a statement in which he considered that “calls for genocide are brutal and contradict everything we stand for as a country.”
The war broke out in Gaza in response to an operation launched by Hamas on October 7 in Israel, which left 1,200 people dead, including hundreds of soldiers, according to the Israeli authorities, during which the movement also took about 240 hostages to Gaza.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced on Friday that the death toll from the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip had risen to 17,487 people, about 70% of whom were women and children.
The war ignited tensions in many American universities, where massive demonstrations took place.
During the questioning session in Congress, Stefanik likened the call of some student demonstrators for a new “intifada,” in reference to the Palestinian uprising against Israel in 1987, to incitement to “commit genocide against the Jewish people in Israel and the world.”
When university presidents were asked whether “calling for genocide against the Jews” violated their university’s code of conduct, they replied that it depends on the context in which it comes.
“When speech turns into behavior that violates our policies, including policies against bullying, harassment, or intimidation, we take action,” Gay said.
In her comments published by the Crimson on Friday, Gay explained that at that moment in her answers she entered into a “fierce and broad dialogue about policies and procedures.”
She added: "When words magnify sadness and pain, I don't know how you can feel anything but remorse."
English (US)