Harvard working groups find anti -Semitism, Islamophobia on campus | Education news

The students and staff of Harvard University had to face both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in the middle of a deeply polarized atmosphere on the campus of one of the best universities in the United States, revealed that distinct relationships have revealed.

The publication of Tuesday reports follows the creation of separate working groups on the fight against anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim feeling last year in the campus protests against the War of Israel against Gaza.

This also occurs while Harvard is involved in a legal struggle with US President Donald Trump about his administration’s decision to freeze more than $ 2 billion in university funding, a decision to claim that Trump was made in response to crawling anti -Semitism.

In a statement announcing the conclusions, Harvard president Alan Garber said that members of the Jewish community, Israeli and Zionist said they had hidden “manifest markers of their identity to avoid confrontation”, while Muslim, Arabs and Palestinian members described themselves to feel “judged, distorted and silent”.

“Particularly disturbing is the reported will of certain students to treat themselves with disdain rather than sympathy, eager to criticize and ostracize, in particular during anonymity and the distance provided by social media,” said Garber.

“Some students said they were pushed by their peers on the outskirts of campus life because of whom they are or what they believe, eroding our common sense of community in the process.”

The working group on the fight against anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli biases declared in its report that biases had been “fomented, practiced and tolerated” at Harvard and in the academic world more widely.

In an online survey, 26% of Jewish students said they felt physically dangerous, while 39% said they didn’t feel at home at the university, the working group said.

Almost 60% of Jewish students said they had “discrimination, stereotypes or negative prejudices” because of their opinions, with only 25% believing that there was no “academic or professional penalty” for expressed their point of view, said the working group.

Among other examples of biases mentioned in the report, the working group cited an anonymous Israeli Arab student saying that Israelis “get used to social discrimination” of their first day on campus.

“People refuse to speak to you. I don’t even pretend to be nice. Some people claim to be nice and put an end to the conversation in a polite manner when they discover (I am) Israeli and no longer speaks to me again,” said the report cited the pupil.

The working group on the fight against anti-muslim, anti-arab and anti-Palestinian biases found a similar climate of hostility, describing a “feeling of deeply assisted fear” among students and a state of “uncertain, abandonment, threat and isolation” on the campus.

“Muslim women who wear hijab and pro-Palestinian students carrying Keffiyeh have spoken to face verbal harassment, to be called” terrorists “, and even to be spit,” said the working group.

“The question of Doxxing has been particularly underlined as an important concern which affects not only physical security and mental well-being, but also future career perspectives,” he added, referring to the practice of disclosing personal information or identification of an online person.

Almost half of Muslim students and the staff interviewed said they felt physically dangerous on the campus, while 92% said they thought they would be confronted with professional or academic sanctions for expressed political opinions.

“As a Muslim student, we live in a constant fear,” said the working group that cited an anonymous student.

“There have been trucks that have been riding on the campus for months, displaying the faces of Muslim students … My peers who lost their jobs simply to be in the direction of Muslim faith organizations were left to dry once their offers were revoked … If there were anti -Semitic trucks leading around the campus and plans that stole with anti -Semitic slogans.

The two working groups have published a series of recommendations to combat biases on campus, including the expansion of access to the legal services equipped to combat doxxing and the prioritization of the admission of students who support an open investigation.

Garber said that the University would redouble its efforts to ensure that this is a place where “ideas are welcomed, entertainment and disputed in the spirit of research of truth” and “mutual respect is the norm”.

“Especially when the tensions are high, we must take up the challenge of seeing us as we are really, unique individuals with complex beliefs and identities, leaving our preconceived ideas and meeting with kindness and concern,” he said.