{"id":135301,"date":"2023-10-10T18:01:45","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T22:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=135301"},"modified":"2023-11-13T13:12:25","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T18:12:25","slug":"following-backlash-harvard-president-distances-university-from-university-groups-blaming-israel-for-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/following-backlash-harvard-president-distances-university-from-university-groups-blaming-israel-for-attacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvard president distances university from groups blaming Israel for attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dozens of official Harvard groups had signed a letter over the weekend blaming Israel for the attacks<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Following national criticism, Harvard’s president condemned the Hamas attack and wrote that the student groups who had signed a letter blaming Israel do not speak for the university.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile our students have the right to speak for themselves, no student group \u2014 not even 30 student groups \u2014 speaks for Harvard University or its leadership,\u201d President Claudine Gay wrote in a statement<\/a> sent to The Harvard Crimson<\/em>, the paper reported<\/a> Tuesday.<\/p>\n

“We will all be well served in such a difficult moment by rhetoric that aims illuminate and not inflame,” Gay wrote.<\/p>\n

Harvard had faced outrage over the weekend for its slow response to the Hamas attacks and on Monday for failing to strongly condemn the violence in its official statement, The Crimson<\/em> reported<\/a> yesterday.<\/p>\n

Nearly 60 student groups at Harvard University had signed a letter<\/a> over the weekend blaming Israel for the recent and ongoing terrorist attacks against Israel by Hamas that have killed hundreds of people, The College Fix <\/em>reported<\/a> yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,\u201d began the four-paragraph statement signed by dozens of student groups.<\/p>\n

In today’s statement from the president, which arrived less than 16 hours after the university first commented on the war in an email to the Harvard community Monday evening, Gay spoke of “terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.”<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch inhumanity is abhorrent, whatever one\u2019s individual views of the origins of longstanding conflicts in the region,” Gay wrote.<\/p>\n

Among the strongest critics of the university’s initial response was former Harvard President Lawrence Summers.<\/p>\n

“In nearly 50 years of @Harvard affiliation, I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today,” Summers posted<\/a> to X yesterday.<\/p>\n

Summers continued Tuesday, writing that “the delayed @Harvard leadership statement fails to meet the needs of the moment.”<\/p>\n

\n

The delayed @Harvard<\/a> leadership statement fails to meet the needs of the moment. Why can\u2019t we find anything approaching the moral clarity of Harvard statements after George Floyd's death or Russia's invasion of Ukraine when terrorists kill, rape and take hostage hundreds of\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/x3pbJZcBLV<\/a><\/p>\n

— Lawrence H. Summers (@LHSummers) October 10, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n