Donald Trump is trying to force Harvard University to pay $1 billion to the federal government accusing it of being “strongly antisemitic.” Previously, the Trump administration threatened to withhold billions of dollars in federal research funding and to block the enrollment of international students. Evidence of antisemitism, at least according to Trump, is the university’s failure to prevent student protests charging Israel with war crimes and genocide in its war against Hamas and Palestinians living in Gaza. Leaders of influential pro-Israel American groups including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) chief Jonathan Greenblatt and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) have long supported the Netanyahu regime’s public dismissal of casualty figures and denial of its murderous policies. They also equate protests against Israeli actions in Gaza with antisemitism.
Many of the accusations against Israel, however, are true and are not rooted in antisemitism. After more than two years of denial, the Israeli military now admits that the death toll of Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza and reported by Palestinian health authorities is essentially accurate. Over 70,000 Palestinians were murdered in Israeli attacks since October 2023. The remains of another 10,000 people may still be buried in buildings destroyed by Israeli bombings.
The Israeli military claims to have killed 22,000 militants in Gaza, which means that approximately 50,000 victims of the Israeli assault were civilians. At least one Israeli military data base estimates that 83% of the Palestinians killed, or 60,000 people, were civilians.
As part of its unrestricted campaign in Gaza, the Israeli army created “kill zones” with arbitrary and often invisible boundaries. Any Palestinian who entered one of the zones was automatically killed including children. It also prevented international journalists from viewing and reporting on what is taking place there.
The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory accuses Israel of genocide. The largest professional organization of scholars studying genocide, International Association of Genocide Scholars, charges that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Israeli human rights organizations B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel and Amnesty International also concluded that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip.
Harvard and other universities and corporations targeted by the Trump administration for supposedly tolerating antisemitism need to stand firm. Even the Israeli military now admits what took place in Gaza.
