Kfir Biba – 9 month old hostage held by Hamas in Gaza
The University of Pennsylvania – an Ivy League school in Philadelphia – and Harvard University are both dealing with the consequences of their failures to do anything about the groups of students on their respective campuses who declared their support for the Hamas terrorist group after its barbaric attack on Israeli civilians on October 7. Meanwhile, Union College, a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York, is facing a backlash after an undergraduate student said that the Union College students who came out in support of Israel should “burn in hell.”
A few days ago Ayah Osman, a junior at Union College, accosted pro-Israel supporters on the school’s campus. She later posted on social media that anyone attending an even held to benefit Israeli victims of the Hams terror attack gets “a free guaranteed spot in hell.” Osman later defended herself by claiming she did not mean that all Jews should go to hell. No – just the ones trying to help the people suffering after more than 1,400 innocent people – including many Arabs and non-Israelis – were butchered.
A Union College spokesman told the New York Post “The College has robust and well-established processes for investigating claims of bias and responds to every such allegation thoroughly. Neither the existence of such investigations, nor the results, are shared by the College in accordance with federal privacy laws.”
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As for the University of Pennsylvania, Scott Bok, the chairman of the school’s board of trustees, could face ouster after his failure to do anything about the attacks on Israel that have been going on at the university over the past few weeks. This comes after Apollo Management CEO Marc Rowan a few weeks ago demanded that the supporters of the Ivy League school end their contributions to it.
At that time Mark Rowan asked, “Why is UPenn repeating tragic mistakes of the past? Words of hate and violence must be met with clear, reasoned condemnation, rooted in morality from those in positions of authority.”
Several UPenn trustees have already called for his removal with one being quoted anonymously as having said in an e mail about the issue, “Scott should voluntarily step down for 2 simple reasons – his leaving has the best chance of de-escalating this crisis, and unfortunately, his integrity is in question.”
Scott Bok is the CEO of New York investment bank Greenhill & Co.
Bill Ackman, the billionaire activist investor who runs Pershing Square Capital, has already called on people to end financial support for his alma mater Harvard because of over the 35 different student groups at the university that released statements condemning Israel and blaming it for the barbaric attacks by the terrorist organization Hamas in the days after it happened. He also demanded that Harvard release the names of all of the students involved with these groups so that prospective employers would be able to take this into consideration.
Ackman has now issued an open letter to Harvard’s President saying, “Never did I think I would have to write a letter to the president of my alma mater about the impact of her actions and inactions on the health and safety of its student body in order to help catalyze necessary change.”
“Jewish students are being bullied, physically intimidated, spat on, and in several widely-disseminated videos of one such incident, physically assaulted,” he added. “Student Slack message boards are replete with antisemitic statements, memes, and images. On-campus protesters on the Widener Library steps and elsewhere shout ‘Intifada! Intifada! Intifada! From the River to the Sea, Palestine Shall Be Free!’ as they knowingly call for violent insurrection and use eliminationist language seeking the destruction of the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”
Bill Ackman went on to charge that Harvard’s policies to protect free speech and minority groups do not protect its Jewish student and he again criticized the school’s failure to condemn the Hamas attack.
And Bill Ackman demanded that the students who recently harassed a Jewish student be suspended and that Harvard should take disciplinary action against the students who are calling for Intifada.
