The Trump administration is reviewing nearly $9 billion in federal grants at Harvard while it investigates how the university has handled antisemitism.
“This administration has proven that we will take swift action to hold institutions accountable if they allow anti-Semitism to fester,” said Josh Gruenbaum, an official with the General Services Administration and a member of the government’s recently formed antisemitism task force. “We will not hesitate to act if Harvard fails to do so.”
What is it that Harvard is supposedly guilty of? There are no reports of violence. In November of 2023, pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel students confronted each other and there were allegations of harassment and doxxing by both sides. Why is only one group’s interest being represented by the Trump administration?
Colombia University had its funding targeted by the Trump administration a few days ago and capitulated to government demands to review policies towards Jewish students and “reviewing the portfolio of regional studies programs, starting immediately with those that teach about the Middle East and Israel.”
In a congressional hearing on Monday, Rabbi Levi Shemtov told the senate that it is “not enough to be not anti-Semitic.” He said that “one must be anti-anti-Semitic.”
This is the rebirth of neo-racism, the antiracist rhetoric that took hold during the Biden administration has since been shown to be racist: ranking people by race and skin color to bestow privileges on some and not others.
