Ivy League universities in the USA, renowned for their academic excellence and selectivity, are currently facing a delicate crisis. Recent events linked to the conflict between Israel and Hamas have exacerbated tensions around anti-Semitism on campus, prompting strong reactions and resignations within university management.
In the United States, a deep crisis is affecting the country’s most renowned institutions, and in particular the Ivy League, a coalition of eight private universities located in the Northeast. These include the prestigious universities of Columbia, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Harvard. They enjoy an exceptional reputation for academic excellence, highly selective admission criteria and are often associated with a certain social elitism.
But since the tragic events of October 7 and Israel’s retaliation against Hamas, anti-Semitism has been rife on the campuses of these universities, provoking strong reactions and even resignations. Governing bodies are criticized in turn for their excessive tolerance of what is presented as freedom of expression.
The day after the Hamas massacre, some thirty student groups and clubs at Harvard University co-signed and circulated a letter denouncing “Israel’s apartheid regime”, which they considered responsible for all the violence inflicted on Palestinians over the past seventy-five years. In response, pro-Palestinian “camps” sprang up on many campuses, provoking unease among students of the Jewish faith.
At the end of April, Columbia University was the focal point of a major mobilization, requiring the intervention of hundreds of New York police officers to evacuate pro-Palestinian activists holed up in a building. On May 1, clashes also broke out on the campus of UCLA University in Los Angeles.
While all the mobilized students are calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, many are also asking their universities to sever all ties with companies and sponsors associated with Israel.
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