02/07/24 Reposted from boston25news.com
Harvard University is under investigation again. The Department of Education launched a discrimination investigation into a complaint that the school failed to protect Muslim and Palestinian students.
The Muslim Legal Fund of America filed the complaint on behalf of 14 students. They claimed they’ve been receiving threats and targeted harassment due to their backgrounds and pro-Palestinian views.
“We look forward to these students having their complaints taken seriously and finally investigated fully,” said Christina Jump, a lawyer with the Muslim Legal Fund of America. “Harvard failed these students. It did not act when it could have and should have and allowed a bad situation to get much worse. We trust that the Office of civil rights will do what Harvard did not and create concrete, usable solutions.”
While the MLFA didn’t go into detail about any specific incident, the lawyer said students were targeted for their pro-Palestinian views and expressions of solidarity, like wearing a traditional scarf associated with the Palestinian liberation movement.
This comes as the Harvard Corporation—the school’s governing body—is already facing two other congressional investigations. One is looking into how the school responded to antisemitism incidents on campus and also the allegations of plagiarism against its former president Claudine Gay.
The school’s interim president recently launched a task force combatting islamophobia and anti-Arab bias.
Since the launch of the most recent investigation on campus, neither the Department of Education or is the school commenting at this time.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
