Harvard antisemitism and Islamophobia task forces find widespread fear, bigotry

Jewish and Muslim students at Harvard University faced bigotry and abuse as the Massachusetts campus was roiled by protests last year, according to two reports released on Tuesday that found many felt shunned by peers and professors for expressing political beliefs.

Harvard and other universities face extraordinary pressure from US President Donald Trump's administration over allegations of antisemitism and leftist bias. The reports, jointly amounting to more than 500 pages, were the result of two task forces Harvard set up a year before Trump took office, one on combating antisemitism and anti-Israel bias, the other on combating anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian bias.

Harvard President Alan Garber wrote in a letter accompanying the reports that they included "searing personal accounts" drawn from about 50 listening sessions with some 500 students and employees.

He wrote that Harvard would do more to teach its students how to have "productive and civil dialogue" with people from different backgrounds and would promote "viewpoint diversity."

The task forces recommended that Harvard review its admissions, appointments, curriculum, and orientation and training programs, as well as change its disciplinary processes. They also encouraged more classroom teaching about "Israel/Palestine and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

Garber wrote that Harvard will begin a research project on antisemitism and support "a comprehensive historical analysis" of Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians at the university. He said the school would also make its disciplinary processes more effective and efficient.

The Trump administration has demanded that Harvard work to reduce the influence of faculty, staff and students deemed activists, as part of a crackdown on what it says is antisemitism that erupted on college campuses in 2023 after the Palestinian militant group Hamas' attack on Israel and subsequent war in Hamas-controlled Gaza. It also urged Harvard to audit departments to ensure "viewpoint diversity" and take other steps.

The administration froze $2.2 billion in grants, most of it for medical and scientific research, following Harvard's denunciation of its demands as an unconstitutional attempt to control the school, and Harvard sued.

Bullying, repercussions

Both Harvard task forces conducted an online joint survey last year, gathering 2,295 responses from students, faculty and staff.

The survey found 47% of Muslim respondents and 15% of Jewish respondents did not feel physically safe on campus compared to 6% for Christians and non-believers, while 92% of Muslims and 61% of Jews felt there were academic or professional repercussions for expressing their political beliefs.

According to the task force on antisemitism, in late 2023 the campus became to many "what appeared to be a space for the unfettered expression of pro-Palestinian solidarity and rage at Israel – a rage that many Jewish and especially Israeli students felt was directed against them as well."

Many Jewish or Israeli students reported being bullied or ostracized for their actual or assumed support for Israel or Zionism, or found themselves accused of supporting genocide.

A smaller group of anti-Zionist Jewish students who joined some of the pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests said they felt shunned by Jewish campus groups.

The task force on anti-Muslim bias said Arab-American students reported being called "terrorist, baby-killer, towelhead and antisemite" after they wore a keffiyeh to show solidarity with Palestinians.

Asked about the two reports, Harrison Fields, a Trump spokesperson, said: "Universities' violation of federal law, due to their blatant reluctance to protect Jewish students and defend civil rights, is unbecoming of institutions seeking billions in taxpayer funds."

Fields did not comment on the findings by Harvard's anti-Muslim bias task force.

In a statement, the Council on American Islamic Relations' research and advocacy director Corey Saylor said his Muslim advocacy group stood by its designation of Harvard as hostile to Muslims, Arabs and Palestinians.

"If the University actually acts on its task force's report to improve academic freedom, free expression, and address the rampant anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia that have been downplayed or outright ignored in public discourse, this may indicate that it is time to change that designation," Saylor said.

The Nexus Project, which fights antisemitism, said Harvard had provided a model to other universities targeted by Trump, who it said was "weaponizing" antisemitism.

"By taking a strong stand against antisemitism and Islamophobia without criminalizing dissent and the right to peaceful protest, the report demonstrates what we know: combating antisemitism and protecting democratic freedoms go hand-in-hand," Jonathan Jacoby, the project's director, said in a statement.