Transcription
This is Harvard, a mighty symbol of America's faith and education. Harvard is simply the most influential of US private universities.
There was a deep sense of polarization after two over seven. It was a very difficult time. I was very worried. Organizing felt worthwhile. I've definitely lost friends because they've discovered that I have certain beliefs.
I was walking back to my dorm one Friday afternoon and I just hear, like, chanting, go, go! Every time we walk somewhere, we get followed. The problem is much deeper than anti-Semitism. They're turning our students into communists. Terrorists. I would have my information be put on the doctrine of, say, having death threats against me.
Something has gone terribly wrong with America's institutions. There should have been a sharp response from the university's leadership, and instead there was next to none. In politics, when you find someone in a dilemma, that's the moment where you can attack.
The Trump administration is taking aim at Harvard University. When they come for one of us. They're coming for. Every single. One. Trump administration announcing a freeze of more than $2 billion in promised U.S. government funding. That money. Just stops. When universities become dependent on the government's own money. Tends not to end well. It's part of a larger attack in civil society begins to give in to authoritarian demands. You lose your democracy. A monument to the universal idea of education. See? The damage has been done. This is a political assault. They're ready and they are going to go big. But not great.
Now the Trump administration is taking aim at Harvard University as part of its crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations. For are this. I don't know about you, but you're turning our students into communists and terrorists. They're the elitist of the elite. They're the locust of the woke. Why are we spending $9 billion with them when they couldn't protect Jewish students?
Amelia Heller is a rising junior at Harvard from Sandy Springs, Georgia, the daughter of a rabbi who graduated from Harvard. She grew up with her sights set on the university and became the first student from her high school to attend. If there's two teams and one is Harvard and one's the Jews, it's like I'm both. We're in Jerusalem and we went to the Kotel, the Western Wall. It's traditional to write notes, to put inside. And so Amelia was going into first grade, so she's writing in her little Barbie notebook. She said, well, I'm writing. I want my family to be healthy. I want to have my friends in my class, and I want to go to Harvard.
I'm currently the president of Harvard Hillel, which is one of the big Jewish organizations on campus. It's very hard to be Jewish alone. You really need a community. So good to see you. You so well. So I'm a Palestinian. My family is from the occupied West Bank. My parents made sure that Palestine was something that I would see, like every single day. So I got involved in PSC freshman year, the Palestine Solidarity Committee.
This is a Star of David necklace. I got it in Israel when I was five. I think I had a much more solid Jewish community before coming to college. I went to a little, I think, a few times my freshman year, but didn't always feel welcome there. I think in large part because I don't look stereotypically Jewish.
The first few weeks of my sophomore year, it was all going pretty smoothly. October 7th, I was up really late working on a paper, and I saw the first like, news flash. We've been getting reports of warning sirens going across Israel. I woke up and my phone was like blowing up. We are also hearing reports of a festival that was attacked. The Prime Minister said we are at war. I was very. Worried.
So the week after October 7th, I walked into Harvard Hillel seeking Jewish community. I was also really interested in some sort of joint vigil between Hillel and our Palestine Solidarity Committee. Was immediately shot down. It was a very difficult time just watching videos of people of my own being absolutely slaughtered or been terrified over my family living in the West, being. Definitely organizing felt worthwhile.
I think the first time all of the antisemitism and anti-Zionism reared its head was the statement. On October 7th, Harvard's Palestine Solidarity Committee released a letter cosigned by 33 student groups. It read, we. The undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence. I was still new to Harvard, and then it felt like kind of everyone was against me. I remember just being shocked and I think hurt. How could that possibly have been Israel's fault? But I definitely did not think that the people who would sign that letter were hateful or anti-Semitic, just thought they were deeply misguided.
The university's president issued a statement condemning Hamas and said that no student group speaks for Harvard. A bunch of. Student leaders came forward saying they regret signing it. But I think once the words out, you can't take it back. The statement quickly gained national attention. And Bill Ackman is saying, look, we ain't gonna hire you. I'd say to all the donors, close your checkbooks. And then donors teamed up and sent this truck to campus. I remember some very close friends being labeled Harvard's leading anti-Semites. And I think in that moment, I knew something was deeply wrong.
I would have my information be put on a doxing website having death threats against me. I mean, when you see so many attacks happening, students being chased with knives, having alcohol being poured on their faces for rent to fear being called terrorist. Two reports from Harvard found that nearly half of Muslim students who responded felt physically unsafe on campus during the 2023 school year. Jewish students reported similar fears. I'm Jewish, never once felt unsafe, and was seeing my pro-Palestine peers being afraid. So that was a large motivation for starting Jews from Palestine. We have a unique privilege as Jews who use our voices despite. Our Jews for Palestine protested some of our events. People chanting, you know, if you go to Harvard, Hillel, you support genocide, things like that. It's their right to protest, but it's just very difficult. Another nickel. I got no more money for Israel's prime. Along with calling for Harvard's divestment from Israel, Jews for Palestine had three major demands. Hey, ho ho ho! Let's go.
I was walking back to my dorm one Friday afternoon, and I just hear, like, chanting. I can handle people yelling, but I, like, had a physical reaction. I was very scared walking back to my dorm. Harvard. You see students and also many faculty members celebrating the Hamas terror attack against Israel, whom they consider to be the great oppressor. Well, I don't know that Harvard University, the institution, was coming out and celebrating October 7th, but if I understand you correctly, it was sort of the feeling that because these protests were going on the way that they did on these campuses and that they were allowed to continue, that it projected this feeling that the universities were okay with it.
Chris Rufo is a well known conservative activist who's advised the Trump administration. The university system does not have an unlimited right to promote an ideology and. And is a leading voice against Dei in America. I think many Americans, in retrospect, that was a turning point, not just about universities, but about the culture as a whole. People said, hey, wait a minute. Something has gone terribly wrong with America's institutions.
If you look at the statements from President Claude in Gay in the wake of October 7th, they were equivocal. On October 12th, Claudine Gay released a video response after two separate written statements were met with criticism. Our university rejects terrorism that includes the barbaric atrocities perpetrated by Hamas. Our university rejects hate. But Gay's statement wasn't enough for the university's critics. In politics, when you find someone in a dilemma, that's the moment where you can attack. Happening today, House lawmakers will begin a hearing on combating anti-Semitism on college campuses. This was a political assault. The problem is, at the time, university presidents didn't realize it. Was calling for the genocide of Jews. Violate Harvard's rules of bullying and harassment. Yes. Or no anti-Semitic rhetoric when it crosses into conduct. Again, it depends on the context. It does not depend on the context. The answer is yes. And this is why you should resign. They couldn't react even in a kind of minimally human way. Quoting Gay is quote, sorry if she offended anyone. I don't consider that an apology.
And then came the reports of plagiarism. And so when that drip, drip, drip, drip of all the papers and all the citations and all the stealing, I knew it was only a matter of time before we could just push, push, push. And then she would be gone. Under intense pressure, including a campaign led by Rufo. Claudine Gay resigned in January and was replaced by Alan Garber. It was a sad episode for president Gay, who has been a committed scholar all her life.
I think this spring, a lot of Jewish students went back with help, thinking that it would die down. But then things started picking up again. We launched our encampment on April 24th, 2024. For the most part, it was very joyful. They were just meeting together, reading books about Palestine. You would hear debates happening on campus. I feel like a really big community advocating for like one shared goal. We are here today to tell the story of liberation. The freshmen live in Harvard Yard, so I lived very close to my last job. My parents were very worried about me going back because the encampment wasn't violent. But there's always that question of like, what if?