Backlash Erupts Against Students Who Blame Israel for Hamas Attack

WASHINGTON — Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan withdrew Monday from his planned participation in two Harvard University fellowships after administrators failed to denounce student groups that blamed Israel for the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

Hogan’s announcement is part of a growing backlash against university students and faculty who have taken sides against Israel as its war expands.

In recent days, major law firms withdrew job offers to students who joined in the finger pointing at the Israelis.

Donors to several universities are threatening to withhold money if the protests continue.

Hogan was scheduled to participate in fellowships as an “advisor” at Harvard’s medical school and its John F. Kennedy School of Government.

He said in a letter to the university’s president that he was withdrawing over “Harvard’s failure to immediately and forcefully denounce the anti-Semitic vitriol” in a statement from 30 student groups.

The statement said the attack that killed nearly 1,400 Israelis “did not occur in a vacuum” and that Israel was “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” Most of the victims were young people attending a music concert or residents of a nearby agricultural kibbutz.

Hogan’s letter to Harvard President Claudine Gay said, “I cannot condone the dangerous anti-Semitism that has taken root on your campus. While these students have a right to free speech, they do not have a right to have hate speech go unchallenged by your institution.”

Gay has tried to distance herself from the dissidents by saying that “no student group — not even 30 student groups — speaks for Harvard University or its leadership.”

Similar controversies continue at colleges nationwide.

At Yale University, anthropology professor Zareena Grewal posted on social media saying, “My heart is in my throat. Prayers for Palestinians. Israel is a murderous, genocidal settler state and Palestinians have every right to resist through armed struggle, solidarity.”

At Florida Atlantic University this month three people were arrested during a march supporting Palestinians when fights broke out with counter-protesters.

Columbia University shut down for a day to avoid violence amid protests for and against Israel.

Some donors to the University of Pennsylvania withdrew their financial support after saying the university’s response to antisemitism was too weak. The unhappy donors included former U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr.

The backlash is spreading to the students’ prospective employers.

At least two major law firms revoked their job offers in recent days to students who protested against Israeli treatment of Palestinians.

Davis Polk & Wardwell revoked offers to three law students at Harvard and Columbia universities.

Days earlier, Winston & Strawn canceled a job offer to former New York University Student Bar Association President Ryna Workman after Workman wrote in a student newsletter that “Israel bears full responsibility” for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

A Winston & Strawn statement said former summer associate Workman’s comments “profoundly conflict with Winston & Strawn’s values as a firm.”

“Winston stands in solidarity with Israel’s right to exist in peace and condemns Hamas and the violence and destruction it has ignited in the strongest terms possible,” it said.

In another example, the chief executive officer of health food company Sweetgreen posted on X that he would “like to know” which Harvard students signed the anti-Israel statement “so I know never to hire these people.”

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