Hamas-Israel fighting stirs tempest in U.S. campuses

Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel students, professors and administrators at some of the most prestigious universities in the United States have clashed amid the violence engulfing the Palestinian enclave of Gaza Strip.

At Harvard University, a statement signed by several student groups holding Israel entirely responsible for its conflict with the militant Palestinian group Hamas drew a caustic reaction from Lawrence Summers, who is not only a former United States Treasury Secretary but the former president of Harvard.

"I am sickened," and not just by the students' statement but by "the silence from Harvard's leadership," he said on X, the former Twitter.

Harvard president Claudine Gay responded by saying, "Let there be no doubt that I condemn the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas," she said. "Such inhumanity is abhorrent."

A list of the groups that had signed the students' statement was deleted — "for student safety," a later posting said.

Some of the groups' members had fallen victim to "doxxing," having their personal information posted on the internet without consent. And a vehicle driving near campus carried a large screen displaying names and photos under the title: "Harvard's leading anti-Semites."

At New York University, after the president of the Student Bar Association declared that "Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life," the law firm of Winston & Strawn withdrew a job offer made to them earlier.

Meantime, on the West Coast, administrators at prestigious Stanford University came under fire for refusing to condemn protesters' pro-Palestinian banners.

Students at Georgetown University in Washington wrote the school's president to castigate him over his "long silence on Palestinian suffering."

A Palestinian student at Harvard, who declined to give his name, told ABC News that "it's a really, really scary time to be Palestinian… in an environment that is so hostile."

Harvard announced this week that university police were protectively stepping up their presence on campus.

WITH AFP