At a House Education Committee hearing Wednesday night attended by leaders of America's top universities, Harvard President Claudine Gay declined to say whether calling for mass violence and genocide against the Jewish people amounted to harassment or bullying under Harvard's own code of conduct. Now the university is clarifying: "There is no place for hate speech towards Jews."
Watch: US university leaders refuse to define call for genocide as violation of code of ethics
The university wrote a clarification on its X Twitter account: "Some have confused the right to free speech with the idea that Harvard would encourage calls for violence against Jewish students. Let me be clear: Calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any other religious or ethnic group, are evil and have no place at Harvard. Those who threaten our Jewish students will bear the consequences."
The university presidency's clear failure to condemn antisemitic chants sparked a widespread public outcry that led Harvard to issue the clarification. After the hearing, Republican Party member and House lawmaker Alice Stefanik wrote on her X account: "University Presidency refuses to condemn a call for genocide of the Jewish people. This is unacceptable and anti-Semitic – everyone must resign today."
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