Ivy League President: Calls for Genocide of Jews Need "Context"

A House committee hearing grilled the presidents of Harvard (Claudine Gay), MIT (Sally Kornbluth), and Penn (Liz Magill) about rampant antisemitism and hate speech against Jewish students on college campuses.

Of note, President Magill answered questions from Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY-21) about antisemitic demonstrations on Penn’s campus. Yet President Magill argued that calls for the genocide of the Jews need “context.”

The Daily Pennsylvanian reports on the absurd response:

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) repeatedly asked Magill whether individuals who call for the genocide of Jewish people violate Penn’s policies or code of conduct.

“If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment,” Magill told Stefanik, later adding: “It is a context-dependent decision."

This response prompted Stefanik to continue probing, who said that Magill’s lack of a definitive response was “unacceptable.”

President Magill’s answer is completely unconscionable. And what kind of context does she need to excuse calls for wiping out an entire race of people?

This question was no surprise to President Magill, and she knew it was coming beforehand. She gave a prepared answer and showed the intentional response of academic elites to Israel’s defense against Hamas terrorists who brutally murdered 1,400 Jews.

A similar exchange also took place with Harvard President Claudine Gay about calls for “intifada” on Harvard’s campus. President Gay also insisted that context was needed for such calls: “We embrace a commitment to free expression and give a wide berth to free expression, even of views that are objectionable.” 

Rep. Stefanik pressed President Gay on whether disciplinary action would be taken against students calling for genocide. But the university president refused to comment on any pending disciplinary measures for antisemitic rhetoric.

So now we know where this rampant hate speech against Jewish students is coming from: the leadership in higher education. The students are ignorant and only regurgitating what they’re being taught in the classrooms at the behest of the university presidents.

The responses of the Harvard and Penn presidents are symptomatic of the indoctrination place in higher education across America and the public school system.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo joined the broadcast and reacted to the supposed “context” that’s needed to excuse antisemitism:

There’s no context here that is remotely acceptable to make such reprehensible statements like the university presidents did. We’ve known how far progressive Left whacked out they’ve become, and I think this was simply further evidence of that. And the discrimination against Jews on those campuses that those presidents evinced yesterday breaks my heart. It doesn’t surprise me, but reminds us all that there is an enormous and big project in front of us to fix these institutions that are important parts of the United States of America.

Secretary Pompeo is right. These academic institutions must be fixed. The zones of hostility against Jewish students must stop. We are hearing from frightened Jewish college students and Christian college students who support Israel and must endure such antisemitic demonstrations and threats.

But rest assured that the ACLJ is fighting back. We already won an antisemitic case at Rutgers University, and I’ve asked our team to send a letter to these Ivy League presidents.

We will notify them of the federal laws that they’re violating.

We are also working on behalf of Jews overseas through our international efforts to defend Israel. Our team is conducting a series of high-level meetings in Brussels with the European Parliament to garner support for Israel.

We are also preparing critical demand letters to the U.N. Secretary-General and the Commission of Inquiry to defend Israel against the increasing lawfare. We will never stop defending our ally.

As we broaden our legal efforts for Israel, we need your support. Israel needs us more now than at any time in the ACLJ’s history.

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Today’s Sekulow fully analyzed the outrageous response of the Ivy League presidents to rampant antisemitism on college campuses. We also gave updates on the ACLJ’s efforts to help Christians in Pakistan and to fight back against the radical Left’s attempts to deny you the right to vote for the candidate of your choice. Former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard also joined to react to the university presidents’ failure to condemn antisemitism.

Watch the full broadcast below: