Left-wing university students who support Palestine and blame Israel for a savage Hamas terrorist attack on Jews are finding themselves increasingly on the receiving end of the very cancel culture they embrace.
Prominent CEOs and influential law firms have pledged not to hire pro-Hamas students blaming Israel for the carnage of Oct. 7.
Deep-pocket donors have cut off funds to universities that did not strongly condemn the massacre many have compared to the 9/11 terror attack on New York.
That morning in Israel, Hamas paragliders descended onto a music festival, slaughtering revelers as they attempted to flee. The carnage spread into kibbutz communities, where Hamas murdered, raped, and kidnapped hundreds of civilians. Babies were reportedly beheaded by their Hamas executioners, who were videoed parading Jewish victims in the streets.
More than 1,400 Israelis were killed, with some 200 taken hostage.
Palestinian supports have called Israel colonialist oppressors who brought the violence on themselves because they forced Palestinians to live in Gaza. But Israeli supporters say that Palestinians don’t recognize Israel’s right to exist and vowed to destroy all the Jews and take back the land.
As events in the Middle East continue to unfold, conservatives believe they’re seeing a shift in how businesses and donors view far-left college campuses.
Stefan Padfield is an associate with the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project, which bills itself as an opponent of the “woke” takeover of corporations.
“I think we’re going to look back on this as a tipping-point moment,” Mr. Padfield told The Epoch Times.
“The horror and the atrocity of what we saw, followed by what can only be described as seeming expressions of glee” from Hamas supporters on campuses across the nation, triggered outrage from corporations, he said.
Canceled Jobs
Harvard University became the epicenter of the debate after 34 Harvard student organizations signed onto a letter from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) on Oct. 7 — the day Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israel—stating they held Israel “entirely responsible” for Hamas’ brutality.However, protests at other elite universities, such as the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), Columbia University, and New York University (NYU), intensified the firestorm.
The rebukes from all sides sent Harvard’s leadership scrambling, resulting in three statements as condemnation mounted and donors closed checkbooks.
At first, Harvard University President Claudine Gay stated its leadership was “heartbroken” by the violence but later condemned Hamas.
New York law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell on Oct. 17 withdrew job offers to law students who signed on to public statements blaming Israel.
Neil Barr, managing partner of Davis Polk, told members of the firm on Tuesday that it had revoked job offers to three law students in leadership positions at Harvard and Columbia University groups that issued statements, blaming Israel for the Hamas attack, according to an email obtained by Reuters.
Likewise, New York law firm Winston & Strawn rescinded an offer to the president of New York University’s Student Bar Association last week after the student published “inflammatory” comments, the firm stated in a release.
Corporate Backlash
Several CEOs, including Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager, called out Harvard that same day, saying the university should release student names for the groups signing onto the letter.“One should not be able to hide behind a corporate shield when issuing statements supporting the actions of terrorists, who, we now learn, have beheaded babies, among other inconceivably despicable acts,” Mr. Ackman stated on X.
“I second this,” Jake Wurzak, CEO of DoveHill Capital Management, said in response to Mr. Ackman’s post.
“We are in as well,” said Michael Broukhim, the CEO of FabFitFun, a lifestyle firm.
Left-wing students who were quick to cancel those supporting Israel are now recanting or saying they didn’t understand what they were signing, according to news reports.
“That’s always the irony of when the boycotters complain that they are being boycotted,” said William Jacobson, a law professor at Cornell University, told The Epoch Times.
He said there has been ongoing bias against Jewish speakers on college campuses. Yet, Russell Rickford, a Cornell University assistant history professor, was free to call the Hamas attack on Israel “exhilarating.” He later apologized for his choice of words.
Understandably, corporations may want to avoid having Hamas sympathizers on their payroll, Mr. Jacobson said, because it may be difficult to explain that association to clients.
Mr. Padfield added that Palestinian supporters on campuses cheering Hamas have focused the public’s attention on the extremes of university culture.
The public sees how universities that embrace DEI reprimand students for misgendering a classmate but allow support for a designated terrorist group, he said.
“And this is a moment where they’re seeing it in a way that they simply cannot look away,” he said. “It’s in your face of how radicalized our most elite institutions have become.”
Conservatives have warned the Left that cancel culture would eventually backfire, which is now happening, Mr. Padfield said.
And up until now, there’s been no consequences for left-wing aggression, he said.
“It’s about power for the left; it’s not about principles,” he said.
Disillusioned Donors
Another shift is corporations willing to withhold money from universities for supporting left-wing causes.Big donors bailing on Harvard made headlines across the nation. The Wexner Foundation, known for L Brands, the former parent company of Victoria’s Secret and Bath and Body Works, cut its ties, as did Kenneth Griffin of Citadel, who reportedly gave 300 million to Harvard last year alone.
Backers roundly criticized UPenn for a perceived weak response to antisemitism on campus.
He said he was “ashamed” to be associated with the university and also condemned it for allowing a “Palestine Writes” festival with speakers known for antisemitic comments to take place on campus in September.
“I refuse to donate another dollar to Penn. There is no action anyone at Penn can take to change that. I’m not asking for any actions. You have shown me who you are. My only remaining hope is that all self-respecting Jews, and all moral citizens of the world, dissociate themselves from Penn,” he wrote.
Others criticized UPenn President Liz Magill and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Scott Bok for their lack of leadership and asked donors to stop sending money until they resigned.
“Microaggressions are condemned with extreme moral outrage, and yet violence, particularly violence against Jews, antisemitism, seems to have found a place of tolerance on campus,” he said.
Rowan is the chairman of the board of advisers to the Wharton School, UPenn’s College of Business, and in 2018, he and his wife gave the business school $50 million. He called for donors who typically send millions of dollars to the university to send $1 as a message, according to news reports.
And like Harvard’s leadership, UPenn’s president issued multiple statements as it struggled to quell the backlash.
Ms. Magill stated on Oct. 15 that the university should have spoken up sooner to clarify its position on the pro-Palestinian festival.
On Oct. 18, she sent another email warning students against hate speech on campus. Penn would not “tolerate and will take immediate action against any incitement of violence” and actual violence, the message stated.
A Jewish student who is a junior at UPenn told The Epoch Times she agreed that Ms. Magill should have come out with a stronger statement against Hamas.
The anti-Israeli protests on campus have been frightening at times because of the hatred behind their chants, said the student, who asked not to be identified.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine should be free” is another way of saying Israel should be annihilated, she said.
Tired of ‘Radical Leftist’
Jason Bedrick, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education, said universities are now reaping what they have sown.“I think that the universities are experiencing a backlash that they are unaccustomed to,” he said. “They’ve let campus radicals run rampant.”
Universities have gone so far to the Left in the name of DEI, which critics say is based on Marxism, that they have all but abandoned mainstream American views, Mr. Bedrick said.
The idea that calling for genocide falls under the First Amendment is disingenuous, he said, pointing out that Harvard recently received a zero ranking from the Foundation for Individual Rights Expression (FIRE) on free speech.
Universities were quick to take moral positions on Russia’s attack on Ukraine, but many have been silent or slow to condemn an actual terror attack, he said.
“The American people are tired of it; alumni, donors, are tired of it,” Mr. Bedrick said.
“I think that the colleges really need to look themselves in the mirror and ask how we got to this point, where students are glorifying terrorists marching around campus, chanting genocidal slogans,” he said.
Mr. Padfield added that some pushback started over incidents involving conservative speakers before the Hamas attack. Those in the legal field called for law firms not to hire Stanford law students after they shouted down 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Kyle Duncan during a campus appearance.
Now that people see the result of far-left ideologies on campus, Mr. Padfield says it’s time for donors to demand an end to “radical leftists.”
Philanthropists should require the universities to stop allowing “anti-American, antisemitic” agendas, he said.
