On October 10, 2023, Billionaire Bill Ackman roundly objected to a controversial statement from a group of Harvard University student organisations solely blaming Israel’s occupation of Gaza on HAMAS’s weekend attack on Israel, calling for the names of the students to be released in an effort to not hire them.
The Controversial Statement
The statement was penned on October 7, 2023, by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee with signatures from 33 university student organisations arguing that the HAMAS military assault on Israel did not occur in a vacuum and compared the Gaza Strip to an open-air prison while claiming that Israel’s apartheid regime is the only one to blame, one of the university’s student newspapers said.
The statement says that Israel is entirely responsible for the violence that occurred on October 7, 2023, when HAMAS militants crossed from Gaza into southern Israel. The CEO of Perishing Square Capital Management tweeted that he has been approached by “a number of CEOs asking for the names of the student organisation so that no one of us inadvertently hires any of their members, arguing students should not be able to hide behind a corporate shield when issuing statements supporting the actions of the terrorists.”
Jonathan Neman, the CEO and co-founder of the healthy fast-casual chain Sweetgreen, responded to Ackman’s post on X, saying that he wanted to know, so I never hire these people to healthcare organisations and service company, Easy Health CEO David Duel responded, “Same”.
The CEO of another organisation called Dove Hill Capital Management, Jake Wurzak, also supported Ackman’s plea to release the names of the students, though Ackman’s request did not receive universal support, with Meds.com CEO Stephen Sullivan writing people should be angry at the administration and teachers, but cautioning against putting the names of the students on a list.
The statement also gained national attention from business leaders and some lawmakers such as Rep Elise Stefanik and Senator Ted Cruz, who asked on October 9, 2023: What the hell is wrong with Harvard?
Tangent
Harvard President Claudine Gay issued a statement on October 10, 2023, condemning HAMAS terrorist activities as abhorrent, and while she did not address the student statement by name, she clarified that no student group or not even 30 student groups, speak for the University or its leadership. Several other Harvard professors have also condemned the statement, including the professor of Computer Science, Boaz Barak, who argued in the past on X that everyone who has signed the statement is condoning terrorism, rape and murder.
The dean of the former Harvard Medical School, Jeffery Flier, called on the university to issue a statement denouncing HAMAS and the university’s Jewish centre. Harvard Hilel argued that the statement contributed to further hatred and anti-Semitism.
Chief Critic
Former Harvard President Larry Summers said on October 7, 2023, that he had never been disillusioned and alienated as he followed the group’s statement writing on X. The university’s silence in the aftermath of the statement that solely condemned Israel gave Harvard the appearance of being at best, neutral towards the acts of terror against the Jewish state of Israel along with Summers, who is an economist who served as the Treasury Secretary also expressed disappointment with Gay’s response arguing that Why can’t we give reassurance that the University stands squarely against Hamas terror to frighten students when 35 groups of their fellow students appearing to be blaming all the violence on Israel?
Contra
Democratic leaders have also condemned the HAMAS strike, including President Joe Biden as well as two democratic senators of Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey and Governor Maura Healy have also condemned the attack by HAMAS from Gaza and Healey called the bond between the US and Israel as unbreakable. In a rally in Boston on October 9, 2023, Markey was reportedly booed by some members of the crowd calling for a de-escalation.
Big Number
Over 1,700. That is how many people have died on both sides since the start of the current war. Roughly 1,000 people in Israel are believed to be dead following the HAMAS strike and at least 765 Palestinians have died in the counter-offensive in Gaza, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials.
