Cometh the hour. Cometh the university. To be more specific, that bastion of American liberalism—Harvard.
The defeated Democratic Party is worse than useless. The lawyers are frightened of threatened retribution. The media are curbing their criticisms in face of mounting law suits. The courts are hard at work, but they take time and the ultimate legal arbiter — the Supreme Court — has a decided conservative bent.
However, Trump may have met his match in Harvard University. In America money talks. Harvard has money. A $53.2 billion endowment fund. This money is a shield against all the arrows — mainly financial — that Trump is raining down on them.
The reason for the attacks on Harvard and other Ivy League universities is alleged anti-Semitism on campus.In reality it is because Harvard—and most of the other American universities are citadels of open-minded, free-thinking, liberalism of the sort that has made America great. It represents everything that the current president opposes. As Trump publicly said: “I think Harvard is a disgrace”
The liberal elite of academia is a top target. If Trump can crush liberalism and force open the university doors to MAGA thinking then he will have changed America for generations. Harvard is America’s top university. If he can succeed there the others will follow.
To that end, Trump’s administration has written to the university with a list of demands to be met with the implied threat of further action if they are not. They include subjecting the university to government oversight of Harvard’s admission and hiring policies. The university must provide personal details of all foreign students, monitor their activities and report on those activities to a federal authority. Anything that smacks of DEI (Diversity, Equality and Inclusion) programs must end along with any criticism of Israel which the Trump Administration has conflated with anti-Semitism.
And finally, Harvard University must agree to the government approving the university curriculum to ensure that faculty are promoting “American values.” Exactly who decides what those values are is needlessly left unspoken.
Harvard–in polite legal terms– has refused to comply.
Other Ivy League universities have not been so brave. Columbia, Yale and Princeton initially caved-in to Trump. But Harvard’s stand plus Trump’s decision to increase his demands have stiffened their spines and they have now joined Harvard in rejecting Trump’s demands and are coordinating a fight back.
The first law suits have been filed. Robert Hur, Harvard’s chief legal representative, has a strong legal case. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the government cannot use federal benefits to coerce anyone or anything to surrender their constitutional rights. For example, in 1967 in Keyishian v. the New York Board of Regents, the justices struck down New York state laws requiring the state university employees to sign loyalty oaths.
In 1972, in Perry V Sinderman the court ruled that a university professor could not be denied a job for expressing his First Amendment rights to free speech.
Trump demands details on foreign students. In 1958 the state of Alabama wanted the membership list of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People). The court ruled that this violated the constitutional right to freedom of association and blocked it.
Perhaps of greater weight than Supreme Court rulings are the words of an alumnus of Yale Law School, Trump’s Vice President. In a November 20, 2022 interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News, JD Vance said: “When the government can come after you because of what you think, or what you believe or what you do, we’ll no longer live in a free country.”
* Tom Arms is foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and author of “The Encyclopaedia of the Cold War” and “America Made in Britain".
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34 Comments
As a Liberal who believes that Free Speech is a basic requirement for a truly free society, I do worry that Harvard believes it is defending Free Speech when it’s actions, in practice, often restrict free speech on campus. For example, there are plenty examples of courses and classes being cancelled because of student objection to the content being taught, of students being sanctioned for opinions they have expressed on campus, and for planned visiting speakers being cancelled because some students object to what they have said previously. It is not surprising that the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression regularly assesses Harvard as one of the worst Universities in the USA for protecting free speech on campus.
I doubt Trump understands any of these details and is just following what JD Vance or others have suggested he does. No doubt this will end up at the Supreme Court.
Over a year ago Harvard’s president was forced to resign – as did two other ivy league presidents for failing to quell and condemn anti Israeli protests that led to disrupting campuses & intimidating Jewish students.
American taxpayers would at least expect that students conduct themselves in a lawful manner and go to college to study. This was another failure of the Biden administration in tackling Antisemitism on campuses.
Dear me Mr Levene. Being pro Palestinian is not anti semitic however much the government of Israel might protest it is. It is not anti-semitic to support a two state solution or to believe that the illegal seizure of Palestinian land by Israeli settlers is unacceptable.
Whilst it is understandable that Israel wants to punish those who murdered Israelis indiscriminately in 2023, it is not acceptable to behave as if you want to wipe out or displace the entire Palestininan population of Gaza or the West Bank.
The government of Israel claims anyone who opposes them or their policies is anti-semitic, whereas they are actually against the policies of the government of Israel, not against Jews in general or the existence of the state of Israel.
Clearly Mr Levene you agree with free speech as long as its exponents don’t criticise the state of Israel. Let’s be clear, what you define as anti-semitism is no such thing, it is opposition to the military actions of the IDF and the killings of tens of thousands of largely innocent people under the pretence of attacking Hamas.
As a descendant of holocaust Jews, I am appalled at how little seems to have been learned when indiscriminate killing of Palestinians is undertaken in this way.
Mick..Three ivy league presidents resigned in failing to curb Antisemitism on campus. Reporting the facts is hardly going against free speech. American taxpayers would expect any university that is in receipt of government money to protect students from harassment & violence. The testimony of Jewish students who brought those lawsuits is well worth reading. I’m glad those universities were found out for those failings. As for free speech – try walking through those protests with an Israeli flag and you’ll get your answer.
There have been instances at US universities that have made Jewish students very uncomfortable.
BBC News – Jewish students sue Harvard over ‘rampant’ anti-semitism – BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67951434
This is a continuation of what Trump began in his first term. Kenneth Stern penned an opinion piece in 2019 writing “The ‘working definition of antisemitism’ was never intended to silence speech, but that’s what Trump’s executive order accomplished this week.” I drafted the definition of antisemitism. Rightwing Jews are weaponizing it
“Antisemitism is a real issue, but too often people, both on the political right and political left, give it a pass if a person has the “right” view on Israel. ”
Kate Aronoff wrote “While they might carry a soft spot for Benjamin Netanyahu, strongmen in the model of Trump, Viktor Orbán, Jair Bolsonaro will never be friends to the Jews. Attempts to close off countries to immigrants and anyone else not included in these politicians’ tribal concepts of nationhood have historically worked out poorly for Jews, which is why Jewish organizers have in the US and elsewhere joined in solidarity with struggles for civil rights and more humane immigration policies.”
Donald Trump is attacking both Jews and the left with one clean blo
We are seeing both the US and Israel under its current government go the way of authoritarian regimes across the world in their attacks on civil liberties.
That cannot bode well for Israel which needs to maintain the moral and political support of the Liberal Democracies to ensure its survival as American hegemony is increasingly challenged across the world.
It would be more accurate to say 3 Ivy League Presidents were forced to resign because of their alleged failure to curb pro Palestinian protests.
If every utterance against the policies of the (very right wing) government of Israel is decried as anti-semitism, then we no longer have free speech.
And yes, Jewish students may well have felt uncomfortable. Yet instead of calling out the appalling behaviour of the IDF, most of them cried anti-semitism and demanded that the protests be stopped.
None of this should be taken as support for the equally appalling actions of HAMAS. However, the truth is that there will never be peace as long as Netanyahu is in power, because as soon as he’s out of power he faces trial on corruption charges.
Face to face talks between the warring sides will ultimately be necessary to make peace. The only question is how long it will take and how many more unnecessary deaths will occur before that happens.
Why should American Jewish students attending Harvard need to call out the actions of the Israeli government? The three university presidents who gave testimony to the Senate sealed their own fate with their answers. You can’t let students barricade others in libraries, set up tented camps on university grounds, and ultimately harass other students without consequences.
Supporting the fascist takeover of American universities doesn’t seem like a rational response to the discomfort some Jewish students felt over last year’s protests about Gaza.
References to anti-semitism are misleading. It’s more accurate to refer to Israelophobia, which means the de-legitimising of Israel and denial of its right to peace and security. The key slogan is ‘Palestine will be free from the river to the sea’.
Andrew. That so called discomfort was more than enough for those three university presidents to resign. The answers they gave were wholly inappropriate given the evidence supplied. Those universities failed to protect students and let a campaign of harassment continue unabated.
This is UCLA in receipt of hundred of millions of Dollars of taxpayers money…
That is what it’s president presided over..
https://youtu.be/ZmBk3T935CI?si=w9zShkTKknLNDPBJ
“It’s more accurate to refer to Israelophobia, which means the de-legitimising of Israel and denial of its right to peace and security.”
It actually means fear of Israel. Anyone living in the West Bank or Gaza probably has good reason to have that fear.
Just watched that YT link .Truly awful.
‘American universities are citadels of open-minded, free-thinking, liberalism of the sort that has made America great’
Having watched that , many would beg to differ.
@Mark Frankel 20th Apr ’25 – 8:15am…. The key slogan is ‘Palestine will be free from the river to the sea’.
The phrase, ” between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.” has been the Likud party promise since 1977..THAT is the key slogan
US student protests about Israel attacking Gaza were in effect criticism of US government military support for Israel, and Trump doesn’t like that kind of independent thinking, despite the original target being Biden. That is why he characterises it as privileged ‘lefties’ getting above themselves – a theme which goes down well with his core voters.
The antisemitism card, ludicrous to most observers given what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, was also available to mask for what in reality is an attempt to quell protest and to demonise those carrying it out. It’s inevitable that antisemites will emerge from the woodwork when Israel is behaving badly and being criticised, but to allow that to taint legitimate outrage at Israel’s openly genocidal assault on Gaza is to play exactly into the hands of those like Smotrich and Ben G-Vir, who want to claim all the land from the river to the sea for Israel, and are grateful for any excuse to cry ‘foul’ against their opponents.
Andy. Ransacking libraries , barricading Jewish students & college employees in buildings , wanting vandalism. That link above showed the devastation those free thinking protesters left Colombia campus in. Hundreds of millions of taxpayers Dollars that college receives , it’s only right taxpayers expect students to study and conduct themselves within the law – not trashing college faculties and intimidating fellow students.
@Thelma Davies
What are your views on Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip?
Nonconform. Israel acts with the tacit agreement of Western liberal democracies.
Your question would be better directed to them. That doesn’t negate students wanton vandalism and intimidation 7000 miles away on US college campuses. View the link, and let me know they are the actions of free thinking students.
The Kent State student shootings in 1970 are a historic example of where things can lead when student protests come up against a corrupt and authoritarian state regime bent on using state power to maintain office and crush dissent Kent State shootings
Thelma, regarding the YouTube link above, there is a lot of mess left after the police moved in on the protests. I’m not sure what bearing that has on the debate we are having. I maintain that it’s not true to say the main body of pro-Palestinian protesters were motivated by antisemitism. An untidy, abandoned camp-site doesn’t say much about that. As for being “law-abiding”, international law makes US support for genocide a crime, so the the US has failed to abide by the law far more seriously than those who left rubbish lying around after they were forcibly ejected.
@Thelma Davies 22nd Apr ’25 – 10:17am…. That link above showed the devastation those free thinking protesters left Colombia campus in….
You do realise that the police had just forcibly removed the protesters (I doubt that was done politely)..Everything strewn about appears to be the result of their expulsion…
As for the graffiti; the vast majority of it was on the plywood boards and hardly permanent…
I remember being outraged and protesting about the ‘Sharpeville Massacre’ (a stain forever on the action of the Apartheid SA authorities); Israel is committing a worse crime each and every day against the Palestinian people..
Perhaps you might choose to comment on the recent ‘open letter’ sent by members of the Jewish Board of Deputies condemning Israel’s actions?
The party has been the most vocal & consistent in calling out the actions of the Israeli government, and rightly so. Having said that , Andy & Expats, that level of vandalism and obscene graffiti cannot be tolerated in a law abiding society. In all fairness , if you are extolling the virtues of free thinking students in the article , it’s relevant to call that out.
@Thelma Davies 22nd Apr ’25 – 11:03am…
Strange how you appear to have no view on the Gaza situation but ‘very strong views’ on US student protests, to use your words, “7000 miles away”
Expats: I’ve answered that one. The Israeli state operates with the tacit agreement of Western liberal democracies. Those are the ones that seem oblivious to the scale of the IDF’s actions in Gaza. As for the US student protests , I’m sure they were politely asked to leave on multiple occasions.
@Thelma Davies
“The Israeli state operates with the tacit agreement of Western liberal democracies. ”
So what? Since when did 2 wrongs make a right?
Isn’t Israel – which claims to be a democracy – responsible for its own actions?
@Greg Hyde, I share your dislike of rude words painted on walls, but some of the protestors probably felt pretty strongly about the images of dismembered bodies many of us have seen, following an attack on civilians in Gaza carried out with American bombs and missiles – and with Biden’s tacit approval.
Andy; I fully understand that strength of feeling. But that university was literally trashed. The library was barricaded, & the disruption to students who were not involved in the protests was significant. Freedom to protest is one thing & I’m all for that . But that should never cross over into destruction of property and restricting the daily lives of others , no matter how strong the feelings.
Greg Hyde 23rd Apr ’25 – 11:53am…
So, You are in favour of protests UNLESS, of course they cause inconvenience to others…
Priti Patel and later Rishi Sunak introduced legislation to outlaw ‘disruptive protests’.
If memory serves , the LibDem approach was to issue a statement saying, “These new laws are part of the Conservative Government’s anti-democratic attempts to silence any opposition to its policies. Liberal Democrats, will fiercely fight them at every step of the way.”
Ah, those were the days!
@expats: Are you saying that trashing and blocking a library and putting graffiti on walls should be allowed and considered a normal part of protest?
(Assuming the library was trashed – I watched the video and it didn’t show that, although the entrance certainly looked damaged and blocked).
@ Simon R. re. expats, of course he’s not, and do please stop exaggerating other people’s fairly straight forward Liberal comments into right wing fake news.
When I was a student and a young Liberal back in the sixties/seventies, there were student protests across almost every campus in the USA and world wide too against the continued US involvement in the Vietnam War. The various governments tried to stop the protests and there was violence on more than a few occasions, mostly on the side of the police and other law enforcement agencies. Ultimately the protests achieved their end because the USA pulled out of Vietnam. Did the president and the Republicans in Congress demand the resignation of college heads? Not to my knowledge.
If I was a Palestinian (and I’m not I’m actually Jewish on my mother’s side) I would not stand idly by whilst my friends and families were being indiscriminately slaughtered by the IDF. If no-one took any notice I would escalate the protests until they did. I would strongly urge Jewish friends to seek to persuade Israel to change course and to work with Palestinians to end this war, not cry anti-semitism.
It is possible to be critical here of what all parties are doing: Israel is very very wrong to be attacking civilians and apparently conducting ethnic cleansing in Gaza (and let’s not forget also to some extent in the West Bank), Hamas is equally wrong to be seeking the destruction of Israel, the West is arguably wrong to have supported Israel to the extent it has, Donald Trump’s Government is very wrong in the way it is locking up and deporting foreign students on very dubious (and often, unproven) grounds and in its apparent attempts to suppress free speech and the independence of Universities. But it looks like at least some on-campus protestors are also in the wrong because they have gone beyond the legitimate bounds of peaceful protest.
It feels on reading some of the posts like some people are mistakenly presuming that being critical of one side implies support for the other. Not so!
Columbia University. Estimated cost of damages to property $1 to 3 million dollars. Hundreds of hours of study time lost by students not involved in the rioting.
Finally, Jewish students targeted for being Jewish. This far overstepped the mark of peaceful protests. It took officers in full riot gear, to regain control.of the campus.