A plane with the banner ‘Harvard Hates Jews’ coupled with a Palestinian flag has been spotted circling Harvard University’s campus ahead of the first night of Chanukah.
Anonymous Jewish students were reportedly behind the stunt on Thursday – sending a message in response to Harvard President Claudine Gay’s contentious testimony in Congress.
The aerial campaign that made its rounds around Cambridge was initiated by a group called ‘Harvard with Hamas,’ as reported by the Boston Herald.
The message was meant to ‘respond to the runaway antisemitism on the campus and the shocking support for Hamas terrorism and rape obscenely vocalized by Harvard faculty and students following the Oct. 7th massacre in Israel,’ according to the group.
Gay and the presidents of UPenn and MIT were eviscerated for telling Congress on Tuesday that calls for the genocide of Jews do not violate their codes of conduct, causing ferocious backlash and calls for her to resign.
A plane with the banner ‘Harvard Hates Jews’ coupled with a Palestinian flag has been spotted circling Harvard University’s campus ahead of the first night of Chanukkah
Anonymous Jewish students were reportedly behind the stunt on Thursday – sending a message in response to Harvard President Claudine Gay’s contentious testimony in Congress
The group’s statement continued: ‘The American college campuses have become toxic dumps filled with Jew hatred and anti-Israel violence,’ an unidentified students involved in organizing the aerial campaign said in a statement.
‘Harvard’s logo ‘veritas’ is the Latin word for ‘truth’ and the banner flown over Harvard skies reveals the painful truth behind the reality of this institution today: what was once the symbol of dignity and tolerance, has sunk deep into an oblivion of hatred and lies,’ the student added.
‘The terror flag and jarring banner will circle over their heads until they can’t hide anymore.’
The group behind the stunt told WCVB, they had planned for the plane to fly before the first night of Chanukah.
According to the group, additional flights will continue over ‘several days’ and will extend to further Ivy League campuses.
The plane comes a day after President Gay faced severe backlash and a donor boycott following the testimony she gave to Congress, discussing the rising antisemitism on campus.
She was grilled for hours about the angry protests at their schools and what they have done to protect Jewish students, many of whom say they now feel unsafe going to class.
While all condemned Hamas and disavowed antisemitism in general, they refused to speak against students calling for the genocide of Jews, and said such speech was allowed – ‘even if it is hateful’.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) aggressively questioned the university leader, demanding to know whether such calls for Jew genocide violated the school’s policies on bullying and harassment.
Gay – Harvard’s $900,000-a-year president who has been in the job for five months – replied: ‘If the speech becomes conduct it can be harassment.’
‘Conduct being committing the act of genocide?’ Stefanik shot back.
The aerial campaign that made its rounds around Cambridge was initiated by a group called ‘Harvard with Hamas ,’ as reported by the Boston Herald
Harvard President Claudine Gay at the congressional hearing where she said calling for the genocide of Jews does not violate the school’s code of conduct
Gay released this statement on Wednesday amid growing calls for her resignation
Gay and the other presidents said the incidents were ‘context-based decisions.’
Gay, under heated questioning from Republicans, failed to acknowledge the school’s undeniable liberal bias, insisting neither she nor the school tracks the political leanings of faculty.
She refused to accept that certain faculty members had been fired after sharing their conservative views, and claimed the school ‘doesn’t keep track of professors’ politics.
While chants for ‘Intifada’ or the eradication of Israel were ‘personally abhorrent’ to her, she said they did not meet the level of violating the school’s code of conduct.
‘Does the phrase intifada not breach your code of conduct?’ Gay was asked by Rep. Elise Stefanik.
‘We embrace a commitment to free expression – even of views that are objectionable, offensive, hateful,’ Gay replied.
Gay released a statement on Wednesday insisting she’d been misunderstood during her Congressional testimony.
‘There are some who have confused a right to free expression with the idea that Harvard will condone calls for violence against Jewish students,’ Gay said.
‘Let me be clear: Calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account.’
Harvard’s Palestine Solidarity Committee triggered fury by writing – on October 7 – that Israel was ‘entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.’ President Claudine Gay has been heavily criticized for failing to appropriately condemn the students who backed the statement
Palestinian supporters gathered at Harvard University to show their support for Gaza, and their hatred for Israel, at a rally in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 14
After the Congressional testimony, students from Harvard, MIT and Penn, along with some of the shocked Republicans present at the hearing, say it is clear the universities’ leaders must resign.
The boards of each school – which ultimately decide whether the leaders will remain in their positions – are yet to make their positions clear.
While donors including Bill Ackman have expressed their disgust with the remarks, other prominent alumni and donors like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg remain silent on the issue.
The Harvard Board of Overseers is yet to respond to inquiries on Dr. Gay’s remarks, as is its Alumni Association. UPenn and MIT have been equally silent.
While donors including Bill Ackman have expressed their disgust with the remarks, other prominent alumni and donors like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg remain silent on the issue.
The Harvard Board of Overseers is yet to respond to inquiries on Dr. Gay’s remarks, as is its Alumni Association. UPenn and MIT have been equally silent.
U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who was the most aggressive in questioning the trio yesterday, slammed the ‘moral depravity’ of their answers.
‘I’ve been in a number of very high-profile congressional hearings over the years and the pathetic moral depravity on display by the witnesses, the three universities presidents from Harvard, Mitt and Penn, I haven’t witnessed anything like that.
‘I asked the question in such a way it was an easy yes, that calling for the genocide of Jews in fact does violate their policies and code of conduct when it comes to bullying and harassment.
‘Their answers were pathetic. I was so shaken, Harris, and what was probably the most tragic aspect of the hearing to me was there were a number of Jewish students from those schools in the audience sitting behind them and to watch just the fear as they are listening to the presidents of these universities fail to answer a basic question of moral clarity was abyss mall.’
Billionaire hedge funder Bill Ackman wrote another message on X today expressing his views on Claudine Gay after slamming her in an earlier post and calling for her resignation
Jewish students from UPenn have also spoken out against the testimony.
They say they had been begging for leadership for months before October 7, and were ignored.
In November, Harvard University’s antisemitism backlash escalated as more than 1,600 Jewish alumni have threatened to withdraw donations.
This news came after billionaire Bill Ackman and Les Wexner, the former CEO of L Brands – the parent company of Victoria’s Secret – called out the pro-Palestine protests that have broken out on the prestigious campus.
Both Ackman and Wexner have said that the university will soon face a ‘donor exodus’ if Harvard doesn’t take action.
The largest community of alumni, who also have billionaire status have warned that they too will withdraw their donations if nothing is done in response to the conflict.
Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman has continued to slam his alma-mater Harvard University, accusing the school and its president of turning a blind eye to anti-Semitism on campus in the wake of Hamas’ barbaric assault on Israel in October.
Ackman, 57, posted a video showing a pro-Palestinian student disrupting a class with a bullhorn, ranting about protests and chanting: ‘Free free Palestine.’
‘This is what you get for $73,600/year at @Harvard,’ Ackman wrote in the caption. The Pershing Square Capital Management founder, who has a net worth of $3.8 billion, graduated with a degree in social studies from Harvard in 1988 and later attained an MBA in 1992.
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