US college presidents testify on campus antisemitism

The heads of three top US colleges have pushed back against claims that they are not doing enough to combat antisemitism on their campuses.

The leaders, who included Harvard president Claudine Gay, testified before the House of Representatives.

The students at the universities have accused administrators of not protecting Jewish people since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Jewish students said they faced antisemitic threats, assault and more.

In testimony to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Professor Gay acknowledged a rising tide of antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus since 7 October, when Hamas attacked Israel, which responded with a bombardment of Gaza and ground offensive.

She said it has been a challenge to balance freedom of speech and protest on campus while also protecting students against hate.

"This is difficult work. And I know that I have not always gotten it right," Prof Gay said.

She testified alongside two other presidents of elite American colleges: University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology president Sally Kornbluth.

They were called to testify before Congress by Virginia Foxx, the Republican chairwoman of the committee, after some House members accused the universities of "mishandling antisemitic, violent" protests on their campuses.

The US Department of Education said in November it had opened an investigation into antisemitism allegations at Harvard. Similar inquiries have been opened recently at other colleges as well.

Prof Gay told lawmakers her campus had taken steps to combat antisemitism recently. She noted they had beefed up security, denounced Hamas' attack and reiterated that the school will not tolerate "speech that incites violence, threatens safety, or violates Harvard's policies".

Ms Foxx said these efforts were not enough and accused college administrators of standing by and "allowing horrific rhetoric to fester and grow" during the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

US college students have held frequent pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrations on college campuses since the start of the war, and some incidents at the protests have raised allegations of antisemitism.

Pro-Palestinian rally organisers on college campuses have regularly denied this. They claim they are only calling for an end to violence and Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory.

But a recent survey by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Hillel International, both Jewish advocacy groups, found that nearly 75% of Jewish college students have experienced some form of antisemitism this school year.

Before the presidents' testimonies, several Jewish students appeared at a press conference hosted by House Republicans to share their own experiences of such discrimination.

Eyal Yakoby, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, described incidents in which Jewish groups received threatening and antisemitic emails, and another in which a swastika was spray painted in an academic building.

"Why doesn't the university hold the perpetrators of such acts accountable?" said Mr Yakoby, who told reporters that Jewish students felt unsafe on campus.

Some Muslim and pro-Palestinian students at Harvard, meanwhile, have been doxxed since the start of the war. They have had their names and photographs published under the headline "Harvard's Leading Antisemites".

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has also reported a sharp rise in complaints of bias incidents against Muslim people in the US since the war began.

On Tuesday, the Republican-majority House also passed a resolution to condemn the "drastic rise of antisemitism" in the US and around the world following 7 October.

The resolution also stated that "anti-Zionism is antisemitism".

Some Jewish Democrats in the House, including New York congressmen Jerry Nadler and Dan Goldman, said the resolution was an "unserious attempt by Republicans to weaponize Jewish pain".

It passed with every Republican vote except one. Thirteen Democrats voted against the resolution, while others voted "present".