Harvard University appointed an anti-Semitism task force that has called Israel an “apartheid regime.” They have also supported former Harvard president Claudine Gay, an activist for the racist DEI ideology. She would not condemn anti-Semitic protesters at the school, but this task force defended her comments.
The interim Harvard president Alan Garber tapped Dirk Penslar, a professor of Jewish history, to serve on the presidential task force on combating anti-Semitism. It was created to identify the root causes of anti-Semitism at the Ivy League school.
As a Jewish history professor, he is accused of using his post to manipulate history.
Penslar has criticized anti-Israel initiatives like the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement but has made other claims that the worst anti-Semites use to push the Hamas cause, such as Israel is an apartheid regime and colonist (see Ira Stoll’s post at the end).
For example, he said, “There cannot be a democracy for Jews and Israel as long as Palestinians live under a regime of apartheid.”
Seth Mandel wrote:
First, as the New York Post notes, Penslar claimed anti-Semitism at Harvard has been “exaggerated” and that it’s comparable to the university’s “problem with Islamophobia.” So right off the bat we have a clear indication that the task force was assembled to sweep the problem under the rug.
But oh it gets so much worse.
Harvard alum Ira Stoll notes that Penslar last year signed a letter accusing Israel of apartheid and of seeking to “ethnically cleanse all territories under Israeli rule of their Palestinian population.” Just last month, he extolled the virtues of seeing Israel through the prism of “settler colonialism,” the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that denies Jewish indigeneity in the land of Israel and evinces a deep ignorance of basic world history. Along those lines, he also incorrectly believes “Zionism is a modern phenomenon.”
They don’t need a task force to find out what the problem is. It’s quite obvious what it is – students from anti-Semitic nations, not having boundaries for racism, and DEI.
Appointing Penslar proves they’ll never find out the causes and don’t want to find out the causes.
Here’s one man’s opposing opinion:
It’s not necessary to use hyperbole, e.g. comparing Derek Penslar co-chairing an antisemitism task force to Harvey Weinstein co-chairing a rape task force. It’s doesn’t pass the puke test. It is absurd on its face. https://t.co/uQgEaJH6vg
— Gary Weiss (@gary_weiss) January 21, 2024
There is this opinion with facts:
Background on Derek Penslar, Harvard professor named today by interim president Alan Garber as co-chair of an antisemitism task force. I think Penslar is a terrible selection to co-chair this task force. Here is why: 1) Signed August 4, 2023 “Elephant in the Room” letter about…
— Ira Stoll (@IraStoll) January 19, 2024
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Typical woke thinking, the victim is really a villain.
This is all a bunch of bickering of no consequence, all these people need to be ignored. These people get paid lots of money to cause divisiveness and generate worthless sophistry. They do not contribute to society.
It is important to know that zionists do not want anyone except Jews to be actual citizens. Such sentiments have been expressed many times by officials over many years. Americans seem oblivious to that, with their rose colored glasses:
July 19, 2018, 12:05 AM CDT / Updated July 19, 2018, 12:05 AM CDT
By Reuters
JERUSALEM — Israel passed a law on Thursday to declare that only Jews have the right of self-determination in the country, something members of the Arab minority called racist and verging on apartheid.
The “nation-state” law, backed by the right-wing government, passed by a vote of 62-55 and two abstentions in the 120-member parliament after months of political argument. Some Arab lawmakers shouted and ripped up papers after the vote.
“This is a defining moment in the annals of Zionism and the history of the state of Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Knesset after the vote.
Largely symbolic, the law was enacted just after the 70th anniversary of the birth of the state of Israel. It stipulates that “Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and they have an exclusive right to national self-determination in it.”
It would have been nice to point out that the word Jew and Zionist are not synonymous.