US lawmakers seeks removal of Harvard, Penn, MIT presidents as Israel-Hamas war divides campus
fire after their alleged elusive testimony before a House Committee. US lawmakers had questioned them about antisemitism and offered narrow legal responses to questions over whether calling for the genocide of Jews was against school policy.
The incident comes amid an ongoing aggravated war between Benjamin Netanyahu's Israel, and Hamas fighters from Palestine's Gaza. The war that aggravated after Hamas fighters attacked Israel on 7 October, has entered its third month, killing over 16,000 Palestinians, displacing millions.
On Tuesday, Harvard University's Claudine Gay, University of Pennsylvania's Liz Magill, and Sally Kornbluth from MIT, faced criticism for their responses during a five-hour congressional hearing. Now Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican, and Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat, have joined 72 other lawmakers in demanding the dismissal of these three presidents.
The House Education and the Workforce Committee held the hearing on Tuesday to scrutinize antisemitism in the aftermath of the 7 October Hamas assault on Israel and the ensuing Israeli invasion of Gaza. Harvard’s Claudine Gay, Penn’s Liz Magill and MIT’s Sally Kornbluth appeared before the panel.
Elise Stefanik, a Harvard University graduate, questioned the presidents about whether “calling for the genocide of Jews" violates their code of conduct or constitutes bullying or harassment. Magill responded that “it is a context-dependent decision" that could be considered harassment “if the speech becomes conduct." Gay also said it depended on the context, such as being “targeted at an individual." Kornbluth said it would be “investigated as harassment if pervasive and severe." Gay and Magill were lambasted over their responses and later tried to
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