Harvard puts research partnership with Palestinian university in West Bank on pause
Ex-head of US school and Rep. Elise Stefanik had called on it to sever ties with Birzeit, members of whose Hamas-dominated student council were arrested for terror plot last year
Harvard University declined to extend a research partnership several months ago with Birzeit University, a Palestinian institution in the West Bank, following public pressure, the Harvard Crimson reported last week.
Late last summer, the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) launched an internal review into the university’s François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, whose memorandum-of-understanding with Birzeit expired some months ago.
A decision on whether to end the partnership permanently or revive it will be made in the spring, once that investigation is completed, an HSPH spokesperson told the newspaper.
In November 2023, shortly after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel — in which thousands of terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages — triggered the ongoing war in Gaza, Harvard’s graduate student union endorsed a boycott of Israel, including academic institutions.
At the same time, an opposing campaign has called on the school to end the partnership with Birzeit, and has been endorsed by former Harvard president Larry Summers, as well as Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Harvard alumna who has been vocal in her condemnation of universities’ handling of the Gaza war protests.
The protests, which broke out on campuses across the country, peaking last spring, have often included expressions of support for Hamas, as well as violations of school policies and sometimes the law.
The Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance called Birzeit “terrorist-supporting,” citing examples of praise for Hamas on campus as well as an instance when an Israeli Jewish reporter for Haaretz was asked to leave the school.
In July, the Shin Bet foiled a terror plot led by representatives on Birzeit’s student council, where Hamas activists won a landslide victory in 2022.
Harvard’s decision comes as colleges and universities across the country, as well as their students, face increased scrutiny from the Trump administration over policing antisemitism on their campuses.
Earlier this month, the US Department of Education sent letters to 60 universities, including Harvard, alerting them of investigations into alleged antisemitism on their campuses.
As it pauses the program at Birzeit, Harvard is due to increase its ties with Israel.
In January, as part of two settlements with Jewish groups claiming the school had fostered an antisemitic environment, Harvard pledged to partner with an Israeli university.
The Times of Israel Community.