‘The world is watching’: Lawmakers call for ouster of 3 university presidents after their legalistic answers about antisemitism and genocide

“The world is watching — you may stand together with your Jewish college students and college or you may select the facet of harmful antisemitism,” Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican, and Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat, stated in a letter to the governing boards of Harvard College, College of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how on Friday. 

Stefanik and Moskowitz, joined by 72 of their Congressional colleagues of their calls for, requested the boards to provide you with plans to make sure that Jewish and Israeli college students and college are protected on their campuses. 

The faculties didn’t have any instant remark. 

The Home Schooling and the Workforce Committee held the listening to on Tuesday to scrutinize antisemitism within the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel and the following Israeli invasion of Gaza. 

Harvard’s Claudine Homosexual, Penn’s Liz Magill and MIT’s Sally Kornbluth appeared earlier than the panel. 

Stefanik, a Harvard graduate, questioned the presidents about whether or not “calling for the genocide of Jews” violates their code of conduct or constitutes bullying or harassment. 

Magill responded that “it’s a context-dependent determination” that might be thought of harassment “if the speech turns into conduct.” Homosexual additionally stated it trusted the context, akin to being “focused at a person.” Kornbluth stated it could be “investigated as harassment if pervasive and extreme.” 

Homosexual and Magill had been lambasted over their responses and later tried to make clear their remarks. 

“Antisemitism has been allowed to fester on school campuses for years, and within the wake of the Oct. 7 assault, the world is witnessing the results,” the representatives wrote. “This can be a clear results of the failure of college management.”