Harvard University, which has come under fire for its tolerance of anti-Semitism on campus, is welcoming a professor from Rutgers University who has said Israel is on a “depraved pursuit of wealth and privilege” and also appeared on a panel with a Hamas leader who called Israel an “animal state.”
On March 4, Noura Erakat, an associate professor of Africana Studies at Rutgers University, is scheduled to give a speech at the Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies titled “We Charge Genocide: The Potential and Limits of International Law,” Campus Reform reports.
In 2020, Erakat joined a panel on an online workshop that also featured Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas leader who stated in 2006, “Israel should be wiped from the face of the Earth. It is an animal state that recognizes no human worth. It is a cancer that should be eradicated,” according to the New York Post.
On February 21, Erakat gave a lecture at Rutgers sponsored by the university’s Center For Security, Race and Rights.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) ripped Rutgers, telling the New York Post that, “Rutgers’ continued promotion of notorious antisemites increases the spread of hate speech and the possibility of violence and harassment on campus. While differing views are a crucial part of building cultural understanding, universities cannot provide a bully pulpit for those who seek to divide and spew hate.”
A spokesperson for Canary Mission told Campus Reform:
Rutgers University employs an antisemite who keeps company with a Hamas commander. The continued employment of Noura Erekat by Rutgers undermines their supposed commitment to combating antisemitism. Canary Mission calls on Rutgers to fire Noura Erekat and take a decisive stand against Antisemitism. Harvard hosting Noura Erekat is yet another example of the once great institutions failure in the face of standing up to antisemitism.
After a December 7 Rutgers event titled “Race, Liberation, and Palestine: A Conversation with Noura Erakat, Nick Estes, and Marc Lamont Hill,” Gottheimer wrote:
At a time when antisemitic acts and violence have been increasing precipitously across the country, especially on college campuses, including at Rutgers, providing these notorious antisemites a space to further promote their well-known, extreme views will further spread hate speech and increase the possibility of violence and harassment on campus.
