Harvard’s ‘Apartheid’ Prof and the Antisemitism Task Force Guess who the university picked to investigate antisemitism on campus?
Harvard University has been embroiled in a public brawl over antisemitism, causing much reputational harm. So how does the school propose to get past this mess, reassure Jewish students and restore comity on campus? Well, how about appointing to lead an antisemitism task force a professor who believes Israel operates a “regime of apartheid” that employs “Jewish supremacism”?
We wish we were kidding. Last week Harvard announced a new Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism, and its co-chairman is Derek Penslar, a history professor. Mr. Penslar’s work on the history of Zionism isn’t uniformly extreme, but it shares an emphasis on “settler colonialism” with the protesters who have harassed Jewish students on campus.
On Oct. 7, the day of the Hamas massacre, Harvard’s Palestine Solidarity Committee and 33 other student groups leapt to blame the victim and absolve the butchers. “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” they wrote. “The apartheid regime is the only one to blame.”
The apartheid lie echoes the old Soviet anti-Israel propaganda. Then, as now, its purpose was to mark Israel as beyond the pale, outside the community of nations, and thus legitimate to attack, even with terrorism. In a 1982 United Nations resolution, the Soviet and Arab blocs grouped Israel with South Africa to affirm “the legitimacy of the struggle . . . by all available means, including armed struggle.”
We don’t know what’s in Mr. Penslar’s heart, though we wonder what’s in his head. It seems obvious that he can’t lead a credible investigation into campus antisemitism if he equates Israel with apartheid.
Harvard economics professor Larry Summers wrote Sunday that Mr. Penslar should step down as co-chairman. “Could one imagine Harvard appointing as head of anti-racism task force someone who had minimized the racism problem,” as Mr. Penslar has done with antisemitism at Harvard, “or who had argued against federal anti-racism efforts? This is yet another example of a double standard between anti-Semitism and other forms of prejudice.”
By the way, Harvard simultaneously announced a task force to fight Islamophobia, in keeping with the new habit on the left that antisemitism can’t be condemned by itself. Most Americans will shake their heads and wonder how many degrees you need to behave as foolishly as Harvard’s leaders.
Comments are closed.
