Report Find Anti-Semitism And Anti-Mulism Bias At Harvard (image-facebook/Harvard university)

Recent reports released on Tuesday reveal that students and staff at the prestigious Harvard University have faced both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on campus. The reports follow the establishment of separate task forces on combating anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim sentiment last year amid the campus protests over Israel’s war on Gaza.

The reports have also been published at a time when one of the top universities in the US is being caught up in a legal fight with US President Donald Trump over his administration’s decision to freeze more than $2 billion in funding for the university. It was said to be a move taken by the newly elected Trump government in response to rampant anti-Semitism on campus.

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As per the findings, Al Jazeera had reported that several students belonging to the Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist community had to resort to hiding their identities to avoid any kind of confrontation. On the other hand, Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinian community members described feeling “judged, misrepresented, and silenced,” said Harvard President Alan Garber.

“Some students reported being pushed by their peers to the periphery of campus life because of who they are or what they believe, eroding our shared sense of community in the process,” Garber added.

And the task force for combating anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli bias said in its report that the bias had been “fomented, practiced, and tolerated” at the university.

The task force on combating the anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian bias found a similar climate of hostility, describing a “deep-seated sense of fear” among students and a state of “uncertainty, abandonment, threat, and isolation.”

Moreover, the Muslim students who wore hijabs and pro-Palestine supporters wearing keffiyehs also spoke about the verbal harassment they faced while being called “terrorist,” and some even reported being spat upon as well.

Nearly half of Muslim students and staff surveyed reported feeling physically unsafe on campus, while 92 percent said they believed they would face professional or academic penalties for expressing political views. Some of them had reported that they have been living in constant fear. One among them even lost his job for being in the leadership of Muslim faith organisations. Many has also spoke about the trucks with the faces of the  Muslim students driving around the campus. And they said, “If there were antisemitic trucks driving around campus and planes flying over with antisemitic slogans, I cannot help but believe Harvard would have done more to stop it.”

On the other hand, 26 percent of Jewish students reported feeling physically unsafe, while 39 percent said they did not feel at home at the university, the task force said. Nearly 60 percent of the Jewish students reported they have experienced discrimination, stereotyping, or negative bias. Some of them said that they have faced social discrimination from their first day on campus.

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Apart from the report showcasing the issue, both the task forces had also come up with a series of recommendations which would indeed help in combating the bias. It included expansion of access to legal services equipped to combat doxing and prioritising the admission of students who support open inquiry. Garber said the university would redouble its efforts to ensure it is a place where “ideas are welcomed, entertained, and contested in the spirit of seeking truth” and “mutual respect is the norm.”