Harvard President Claudine Gay condemns ‘barbaric atrocities perpetrated by Hamas’ – but rejects calls to punish pro-Palestine groups who blamed Israel for terrorist attacks because the Ivy League school ’embraces a commitment to free expression’

Harvard President Claudine Gay condemned the ‘barbaric atrocities committed by Hamas’ – but rejected calls to punish pro-Palestine groups that justified the attack that killed more than 1,000 Israelis.

In her third statement since the attacks on Saturday, Gay posted a video message titled ‘Our Choices’ on social media on Thursday, addressing calls for the Harvard students who blamed Israel for the gruesome attack to be punished.

“People have asked me where we stand, so let me be clear, our university rejects terrorism. This includes the barbaric atrocities committed by Hamas. Our university rejects hatred – hatred of Jews, hatred of Muslims, hatred of any group of people based on their faith, their national origin or any aspect of their identity,” the scholar said.

‘Our university rejects the harassment or intimidation of individuals based on their beliefs, and our university embraces a commitment to freedom of expression, even extending to views that many of us find offensive, even outrageous. We do not punish or sanction people for expressing such views, but it is far from endorsing them.

Gay added: ‘This is a moment of intense sadness and pain for many people in our community and around the world. I feel that pain and sorrow myself as members of a university community, we have a choice – We can fan the flames of division and hatred that roil the world, or we can try to be a force for something different and better. ‘

Harvard President Claudine Gay condemned the ‘barbaric atrocities committed by Hamas’ – but rejected calls to punish pro-Palestinian groups that justified the attack

Harvard found itself in hot water after 31 of its student organizations signed a letter holding the Israeli regime fully responsible for all unfolding violence.’

In their statement on Sunday, the groups said the attack that sparked the war did not happen in a vacuum, claiming that the Israeli government had forced Palestinians to live in an open-air prison for more than two decades.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman claimed that co-CEOs want to know who they are, so ‘none of us accidentally hires any of their members’.

The CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management said he had been approached by a number of CEOs, adding: “One should not be able to hide behind a corporate shield when issuing statements supporting the actions of terrorists, which, we now learned, decapitated babies, among other unimaginably despicable acts.’

Perfume giant Jo Malone has distanced itself from company founder Jo Malone after DailyMail.com revealed her son Josh Willcox was a leader of the group, the Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee.

Josh Willcox (left) son of perfume magnate Jo Malone (center) is listed as one of three Harvard students running the Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee. He is also pictured with his father Gary Willcox at a sophisticated London party in 2017

On Tuesday, the names and personal information of students allegedly involved were posted online, and on Wednesday, a billboard truck displaying that information was driven around campus, the Harvard Crimson newspaper reported. Some critics of the pro-Palestinian letter responded by denouncing the intimidation of students, the newspaper said.

Meanwhile, Gay was slammed after her first statement on Monday, which failed to condemn Hamas by name.

She then said in a second statement: ‘While our students have the right to speak for themselves, no student group – not even 30 student groups – speaks on behalf of Harvard University or its leadership.’

But it was too late for some of the school’s donors and alumni. who were left outraged by the student groups’ statement.

Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer and his wife Batia Ofer told the Hebrew-language outlet TheMarker that she and her husband are both leaving the school’s executive board over President Claudine Gay’s response to 31 Harvard organizations signing a letter blaming placed on Israel for Hamas’ brutal attacks. which killed more than 1,500.

Nazis, Nazis, Nazis, one man in a keffiyeh with Palestinian colors repeatedly chanted at the counter-protesters.

The Palestine Solidarity Committee holds banners outside the prestigious college

Their action is ‘in protest against the shocking and insensitive response by the president of the university, who did not condemn the letter by student organizations that blamed Israel for the massacres.’

Harvard’s first statements were widely condemned, including by former US Treasury Secretary and alumni Larry Summers who wrote on X: ‘In nearly 50 years of @Harvard affiliation I have never been more disillusioned and alienated than I am today.

“The silence of Harvard’s leadership thus far, coupled with a vocal and widely reported statement by student groups that blamed Israel exclusively, has allowed Harvard to appear at best neutral toward acts of terror against the Jewish state of Israel.”

Additionally, around 150 people waving placards and Palestinian flags occupied the steps of Cambridge City Hall on Tuesday.

“Animals, animals, you pigs, animals, Nazis, Nazis, Nazis,” one man in a Palestinian-colored keffiyeh shouted at them, wagging his finger across the thin line of police separating the groups.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley called on the Justice Department to investigate pro-Palestine student groups on college campuses across the country after they held anti-Israel protests.

After the Palestinian militant group Hamas’s weekend attack on Israel, Israel bombed and besieged the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Hamas, and is planning a ground invasion. The Israeli death toll has risen to more than 1,300, according to public broadcaster Kan. Gaza authorities said more than 1,500 Palestinians were killed.

Amid the growing conflict, tensions between students on either side of the issue have boiled over on some American college campuses.

Statements by student groups supporting Palestinians have sparked outrage and fear among Jews and, in some cases, broader rebuke of public officials and corporations.

There were reports of harassment and assaults from both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students, deepening grief and putting students of all political stripes on high alert.