Israeli billionaire and his wife QUIT board of Harvard’s famed Kennedy School of business after slamming college’s woke president Claudine Gay’s ‘shocking and insensitive’ response to Hamas massacre
An Israeli billionaire says he and his wife are stepping down from the board of Harvard University’s famed Kennedy School of Business over the school’s president’s response to the surprise Hamas attacks in Israel.
Idan Ofer is the founder of Eastern Pacific Shipping which is reportedly worth more than $14 billion Forbes. His wife Batia is an art collector and the descendant of Holocaust survivors.
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 Israel for Hamas’ brutal attacks that have killed more than 1,500.
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.’
“We write to you today saddened by the death and destruction unleashed by the attack by Hamas targeting citizens in Israel over the weekend, and by the ongoing war in Israel and Gaza,” Harvard administrators wrote in Monday’s statement, credited to Gay.
Idan Ofer (pictured left) is the founder of Eastern Pacific Shipping which, according to Forbes, is worth more than $14 billion. His wife Batia (pictured right) is an art collector and the descendant of Holocaust survivors
The statement’s lack of explicit condemnation of the terrorist group Hamas sparked anger from many Harvard alums.
Gay had to issue a follow-up statement on Tuesday to clarify her words.
“As the events of the past few days continue to reverberate, let there be no doubt that I condemn the terrorist atrocities committed by Hamas,” she wrote.
“Such inhumanity is abhorrent, regardless of one’s individual view of the origins of protracted conflicts in the region.”
For the Ofers – one of the richest families in Israel, with Idan a majority shareholder of the country’s largest holding companies and co-owner of soccer powerhouse Atletico Madrid – the statement is clearly not enough.
Harvard has not yet responded with comment on the matter.
The organizations released a letter to the public on Sunday as a ‘Joint Statement by Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the Situation in Palestine’ to condemn Israel in the wake of the violence. Several Kennedy school groups were signatories.
They claim that Hamas’ attacks, which are still ongoing, ‘did not happen in a vacuum’ and the Israeli government forced Palestinians to live in an open-air prison for more than two decades.’
Ofer told the Hebrew-language outlet TheMarker that she and her husband are both leaving the school’s executive board over the school’s response to student groups that blame Israel.
Batia Ofer (photo center) said their action was ‘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.’
The Ofers are both stepping down from the school’s executive board over president Claudine Gay’s response
“We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime fully responsible for all unfolding violence,” the groups wrote.
It is another moment of contention for the school just a day after a professor was forced to apologize for suggesting that the Hamas attack on Israel was an attempt to distract him from Benjamin Netanyahu’s ‘ own corruption’.
The groups then repeat a familiar trope from the left by accusing the Israeli government of forcing Palestine to live under an apartheid state.
‘The apartheid regime is the only one to blame. Israeli violence has structured every aspect of Palestinian existence for 75 years,’ they continue.
‘From systematized land seizures to routine airstrikes, arbitrary detentions to military checkpoints, and forced family separations to targeted killings, Palestinians have been forced to live in a state of death, both slow and sudden.’
Despite the many dead in Israel, including at least four Americans, the groups called for an end to the brutalization of Palestinians to finish the letter.
“Today, the Palestinian ordeal enters uncharted territory. The coming days will require a firm stand against colonial retaliation. We call on the Harvard community to take action to stop the ongoing extermination of Palestinians.’
The Palestine Solidarity Committee held inflammatory events relating to the conflict, including protests, an ‘Apartheid Week’ and a ‘Boycott Israel Trek.’
The Palestine Solidarity Committee holds banners outside the prestigious college
The group was also credited with getting the Harvard Crimson — the school’s longtime student newspaper — to support BDS, or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel.
The groups include the school’s African American Resistance Organisation, Amnesty International, ‘Harvard Act on a Dream’, groups of Muslim and South Asian students from the Kennedy and Chan schools, the Harvard Islamic Society and Harvard Jews for Liberation.
As the full extent of the weekend’s atrocities came into focus, Israel’s military was ramping up preparations for a ground invasion, and Hamas continued to launch rockets into Israel.
“Now is the time for war,” Israel’s military chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said as his country assembled tanks near the Gaza Strip.
Seeking support for its response, Israel’s government showed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO defense ministers graphic images of children and civilians they said Hamas killed in a weekend rampage in Israel.
Blinken said they showed a baby ‘riddled with bullets’, decapitated soldiers and burned young people in their cars.
“This is simply depravity in the worst possible way,” he said. “It really goes beyond anything we can comprehend.”
Israel vowed to hit back for the attack – the deadliest by Palestinian militants in Israeli history.
An armed Palestinian militant leads a man during the Supernova music festival
An armed Palestinian militant is seen walking around the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Reim in the Negev desert in southern Israel.
Sitting on the back of a terrorist’s motorcycle, her outstretched arms pointing at her helpless boyfriend, student Noa Argamani pleads for her life
Aftermath: Burned out and abandoned cars where revelers tried to escape the attack
At least 260 were killed in the massacre while many are still missing – either dead or taken hostage by the bloodthirsty militants
Like others around the world, Blinken urged Israel to show restraint, but he also reiterated America’s support, saying: ‘We will always be there by your side.’
He was due to meet King Abdullah and Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in Jordan on Friday as part of a Middle East tour aimed at stemming the tide of war.
America’s top diplomat, Blinken, planned to visit key American allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – some with influence over Hamas, an Islamic group backed by Iran.
Halevi said lessons would be drawn from the security failures around Gaza that made the attack possible.
“We will learn, investigate, but now is the time for war,” he said.
The US military is putting no conditions on its security assistance to Israel, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, adding that Washington expects Israel’s military to “do the right things” to prosecute its war against Hamas.
Austin was to be in Israel on Friday and planned to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hamas called on Palestinians to rise up on Friday in protest against Israel’s bombardment of the enclave, urging Palestinians to march on East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque and join Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank. clash.
Public broadcaster Kan said the Israeli death toll had risen to more than 1,300.
The US death toll has risen to 27.
Scores of Israeli and foreign hostages were taken back to Gaza; Israel said it had identified 97 of them.
Israel has so far responded by placing Gaza, home to 2.3 million people, under siege and launching a bombing campaign that has destroyed entire neighborhoods.
Gaza authorities said more than 1,500 Palestinians were killed.