The statement’s failure to explicitly condemn the terrorist group Hamas has sparked outrage among numerous Harvard alums.
An Israeli billionaire and his wife are resigning their posts on the executive board of Harvard University’s prestigious Kennedy School of Business over the school president’s response to the recent surprise Hamas attacks in Israel. Idan Ofer, the founder of Eastern Pacific Shipping, is reportedly worth over $14 billion according to Forbes.
His wife, Batia, is an art collector and comes from a family of Holocaust survivors. The couple’s decision to quit the board of Harvard University’s Kennedy School is in protest to President Claudine Gay’s belated lukewarm response to the student letter blaming Israel for the massacre committed by Hamas terrorists on Saturday, the Hebrew-language news site TheMarker reported.
Quitting in Protest
Ofer, a shipping and chemicals magnate, and his wife, Batia, who is also a member of the executive board, said they 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.”
“We write to you today heartbroken by the death and destruction unleashed by the attack by Hamas that targeted citizens in Israel this weekend, and by the war in Israel and Gaza now underway,” Harvard administrators wrote in the statement from Monday, credited to Gay.
The statement’s failure to explicitly condemn the terrorist group Hamas has sparked outrage among numerous Harvard alums.
Gay has been facing backlash from Harvard alumni, including former school president Larry Summers, who decried the “delayed” response from her office regarding the student letter.
