The administration of President Donald Trump has announced that it will “a comprehensive review” of federal contracts with Harvard University, as part of the campaign to repress the anti -Semitism in the United States.
But critics are afraid that the prestigious Ivy League is the latest goal in a Reinfits pro -Palestinian voices.
On Monday, three departments under Trump’s control – Ministry of Education, Public Services and Health and Humanitarian Services Administration – Press Release Saying that Harvard contracts are worth $ 255.6 million and 8.7 billion dollars in multi -year grants to put a microscope.
“Harvard University has worked as a symbol of the American dream of generations,” Minister of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.
“Harvard failed to protect students on the campus from anti-Semitic discrimination-all with the strengthening of division-based ideologies on the free investigation-has put his reputation in a serious danger.”
This announcement follows similar measures taken against another campus of the IVY League League at Columbia University in New York, which witnessed millions of contracts canceled.
The ivy-Columbia association was in particular-the center of demonstrations in support of the Palestinians in the United States, after Israel launched a war against Gaza in October 2023.
Student camps In the Colombia Park in April and May 2024, similar protests inspired all parts of the country, where campus activists condemned school relations with Israel and called for the end of human rights violations in Gaza.
Human rights groups and experts at the United Nations accused Israel of using tactics consistent with genocide in the Palestinian territories.
The organizers behind the demonstrators on the campus have rejected largely accusations of anti -Semitism, on the pretext that the criticism of the government of Israel is not itself spreading anti -Jewish hatred. They likened to attempts to distort their protests as a form of censorship, designed to discourage freedom of expression.
But critics accused the demonstrators of creating an unsafe educational environment. There were also reports isolated from anti -Jewish attacks, including the alleged attack on the 24 -year -old Colombia student who was suspending the supporters of Israel in October 2023.
However, the protests were largely, peaceful. Freedom experts in the Trump administration have condemned as an evading anti -Semitism in order to exercise control over the best universities.
List of demands
In the case of the University of Colombia, the Trump administration stripped the school for $ 400 million in scholarships and contracts on March 7, and it is immediately valid. Colombia was accused of allowing “violence unavoidable, intimidation, and anti -Semitic harassment” on its university campus.
A week later, on March 13, the Trump administration issued a list of demands that Colombia will need to comply with the amount of $ 400 million.
They included the ban on face masks, and the guarantee of law enforcement can arrest “instigators” on the campus, and to adopt a controversial definition of anti -Semitism that can include the criticism of Israel.
The Trump administration also called for the development of studies in the Middle East, South Asia and African under external control.Judicial guard“.
Critics condemned measures as an attempt to erode academic freedom. Description of the basis for individual rights and expression (FIR).
The organization wrote in a statement.
“Civil rights investigations should not be dealt with through dedicated directives from the government.”
But the United States has long been an ally of Israel since the establishment of the country, and the Trump administration Backed Israeli ministers Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign in Gaza, until he suggested that The United States “Acting” and “Own” Palestinian Territories – converting them to “Riviera in the Middle East”.
Critics said that Trump’s proposal is a campaign to purify ethnicity against the Palestinians who are called Gaza to the house.
On March 22, Colombia University He agreed to comply with With most Trump demands.
Faculty of Law talks
The Trump administration described these concessions as a victory in its press statement, which announces the review of Harvard’s federal contracts.
He also indicated that Harvard indicated that he would cooperate with Trump’s priorities.
“We are pleased that Harvard is ready to interact with us on these goals,” Sean Kevini of the Ministry of Health and Humanitarian Services said in the statement.
But the announcement that Harvard was the next school that is distinguished in the wake of an open letter from the Faculty of Law, one of the oldest centers in the country.
More than 90 professors signed the document, which denounces the measures that have taken “punishing people to speak legally about matters of public attention.”
While the message does not mention Trump or the demonstrators supporting the Palestinians, its publication comes after the students were Deportation As a result of their activity.
However, the message is to write down attempts to “threaten law firms and legal clinics” for their legal work or their previous government services – in reference to the measures taken by Trump.
Trump, for example, issued executive orders to punish companies such as Perkins Coie Coie from San Francisco, which represented his 2016 election rival, Hillary Clinton, and launched the prosecutors of the Ministry of Justice.
Harvard’s law professors warned this constitutional right to freedom of expression – and creates an atmosphere of fear.
“Everything that each of them might think about a specific behavior under certain facts, we share the conviction that our constitution, including the first amendment, was designed to make the opposition and discussion possible without fear of the government’s punishment,” says the message.
“The law or community college cannot work in a way that is like this.”
However, the Trump administration pledged “quick work” if Harvard University failed to comply with its demands.
“We mean work,” the Secretary McMahon to publish On social media.
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