Harvard Slammed For Choosing Prof Who Called Israel ‘Apartheid State’ To Co-Chair Anti-Semitism Task Force

On Friday, Harvard University announced the formation of an anti-Semitism task force to be co-chaired by a professor who was also one of many signatories to a letter last August that accused Israel of an “illegal occupation of millions of Palestinians” and forcing Palestinians to live “under a regime of apartheid.” The letter also accused the current Israeli government of a “messianic, homophobic, and misogynistic agenda” and endorsed a “Demand from elected leaders in the United States that they … restrict American military aid from being used in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Filed under “you can’t make this up” —
Prof who claims “veins of hatred run through Jewish civilization” & that @Israel is a racist, #Jewish Supremacist apartheid state is appointed co-chair of @Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Combating #Antisemitism.https://t.co/HDGFRB6r04

— Pamela Paresky🎗️(Habits of a Free Mind) (@PamelaParesky) January 21, 2024

Harvard University – the rot of antisemitism at the disgraced school sinks to a new low as Derek Penslar, a member of the school’s task force to FIGHT antisemitism, is outted for calling Israel an apartheid regime.https://t.co/zZuikbrVOh

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) January 21, 2024

Harvard naming Derek Penslar as co-chair of their Task Force on Antisemitism makes as much sense and inspires as much confidence as the U.N. announcement the day before that Ayatollah Khamenei's regime will assume the Presidency of the Conference on Disarmament. https://t.co/H4716qyXB6

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) January 21, 2024

Derek Penslar, the William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, also published a book titled “Zionism: An Emotional State” in which he stated that “veins of hatred run through Jewish civilization” in reference to Biblical narrative.

“Prof Penslar has publicly minimized Harvard’s anti-Semitism problem, rejected the definition used by the US government in recent years of anti-Semitism as too broad, invoked the need for the concept of settler colonialism in analyzing Israel, referred to Israel as an apartheid state and more,” former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers wrote on X, adding, “None of this in my view is problematic for a professor at Harvard or even for a member of the task force but for the co-chair of an anti-Semitism task force that is being paralleled with an Islamophobia task force it seems highly problematic.”

Author Ira Stoll stated that Penslar in a “December 29, 2023 Crimson op-ed, criticized the International Holocaust Remembrance Association definition of antisemitism and endorsed two alternative definitions. The IHRA definition was backed by the Trump and Biden administrations and is included in federal Department of Education guidance (which Penslar omitted from his op-ed).”

Background on Derek Penslar, Harvard professor named today by interim president Alan Garber as co-chair of an antisemitism task force. I think Penslar is a terrible selection to co-chair this task force. Here is why: 1) Signed August 4, 2023 “Elephant in the Room” letter about…

— Ira Stoll (@IraStoll) January 19, 2024

“Harvard continues on the path of darkness,” billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who helped lead the charge against former Harvard President Claudine Gay, tweeted. Penslar defended Gay after she had testified before Congress and avoided answering whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated Harvard’s codes of conduct, saying, “It can be, depending on the context.”

.@Harvard continues on the path of darkness. https://t.co/b2TWTHLfBs

— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) January 19, 2024