Top US colleges 'refuse' to accept calls for genocide of Jews as harassment

NEW DELHI: Three of the top US universities, in a high-profile congressional hearing on Tuesday, refused to categorically accept that genocidal calls against Jews violate their campus rules on harassment, reported the Times of Israel.Presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Pennsylvania were responding to New York Republican Representative Elise Stefanik, who asked if "calling for the genocide of Jews” went against the campus' code of conduct.Responding to Stefanik's question, University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill said, “It is a context-dependent decision.”The New York Republican pulled up Magill, saying it is the easiest question to answer "yes" without requiring the context.“Calling for the genocide of Jews is dependent on the context? That is not bullying or harassment? This is the easiest question to answer ‘yes,’ Ms Magill,” Stefanik said.Harvard president Claudine Gay, who was responding to the same question said, “When speech crosses into conduct, we take action,” while MIT president Sally Kornbluth said that "such language would only be probed as harassment if pervasive and severe.”However, the three presidents agreed that there had been a surge in antisemitism sentiment on their campuses after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war -- triggered following Hamas' bloodiest attack on Israel on October 7. In retaliation to the attack, Israel has been pounding Gaza with incessant airstrikes.“I know some Israeli and Jewish students feel unsafe on campus. As they bear the horror of the Hamas attacks and the history of antisemitism, these students have been pained by chants in recent demonstrations,” Kornbluth said. The presidents' testimonies came against the backdrop of heightened tensions on college campuses across the country. Pro-Palestinian students or faculty members, including those from the three universities represented at the hearing, have garnered attention for their speech and actions on campus, which critics have labelled as antisemitic or inappropriate.Tuesday’s hearing — which lasted more than five hours and was called by the House education and workforce committee — was at least the fourth the Republican-led House has held on the subject of campus antisemitism since October 7. But it was the first to summon university presidents to testify.Over hour-long hearing on Tuesday, convened by the House Education and Workforce Committee, marked at least the fourth instance since October 7 in which the Republican-led House addressed the issue of campus antisemitism. Notably, it was the inaugural occasion on which university presidents were summoned to testify. On the same day, the House approved a resolution initiated by the two Jewish Republicans in Congress, endorsing the equivalence of antisemitism and anti-Zionism.