Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer announced that he and his wife are resigning from the Harvard Kennedy School’s executive board because of the school president’s response to a student letter that blamed Israel for the terrorist attack on their country.
Ofer released a statement explaining that he and his wife, Batia, resigned “in protest of the shocking and insensitive response by the president of the university, who did not condemn the letter by student organizations who blamed Israel for the massacres,” according to a report from the New York Post.
The decision comes after a letter, which was titled “Joint Statement by Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the Situation in Palestine” and signed by 31 student groups, condemned Israel after the country faced a surprise attack from Hamas earlier this month.
HARVARD PRESIDENT ADDRESSES BACKLASH FOLLOWING STUDENT GROUPS’ STATEMENT BLAMING ISRAEL FOR VIOLENCE
Idan Ofer (David Silverman/Getty Images)
“We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” the letter read. “The apartheid regime is the only one to blame.”
“Israeli violence has structured every aspect of Palestinian existence for 75 years,” the letter continued. “From systematized land seizures to routine airstrikes, arbitrary detentions, to military checkpoints, and enforced family separations to targeted killings, Palestinians have been forced to live in a state of death, both slow and sudden.”
The letter drew immediate backlash from across the U.S., which only grew as the school and Harvard President Claudine Gay offered nothing but silence in response.
People walk through the gate on Harvard Yard on the university’s campus. (Getty Images)
After calls to condemn the letter grew, Gay released a video response last week arguing that she does condemn the Hamas attacks but noting that she “embraces a commitment to free expression” on campus, a right that “extends even to views that many of us find objectionable, even outrageous.”
“People have asked me where we stand. So let me be clear. Our university rejects terrorism. That includes the barbaric atrocities perpetrated by Hamas. Our university rejects hate. Hate of Jews. Hate of Muslims. Hate of any group of people based on their faith, their national origin, or any aspect of their identity. Our university rejects the harassment or intimidation of individuals based on their beliefs,” Gay said.
Harvard’s president also noted that “students have the right to speak for themselves,” but cautioned that “no student group – not even 30 student groups – speaks for Harvard University or its leadership.”
Harvard banners hang outside Memorial Church on the university’s campus. (Michael Fein/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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But the response was apparently not enough for the Ofers, one of the wealthiest families in Israel with an estimated net worth of $14 billion, who instead decided to cut ties with the school.
Harvard did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment.
