Lawmakers Demand Harvard Cut Ties With ‘Hamas Collaborator’ Palestinian University 

A group of lawmakers is demanding Harvard University terminate a partnership with a Palestinian university whose faculty and students have endorsed and collaborated with Hamas.

“If Harvard University sincerely cared about the safety and security of their student body, they would immediately shut down this partnership and condemn Birzeit University,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) told The Daily Wire.

Stefanik and 27 other lawmakers signed on to a July letter calling for Harvard to “immediately end” its relationship with Birzeit. The universities are partnering to host a “Palestine Social Medicine Course” that brings American students to Birzeit’s campus in Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank. Harvard announced last month that it was moving the program to Jordan due to “security concerns in the West Bank.”

According to Stefanik, simply moving the program isn’t enough.

“Harvard and its morally bankrupt leadership must immediately disband this partnership and condemn the pro-Hamas, anti-Israel hate threatening the survival of our most precious ally,” Stefanik added.

Birzeit University called for “glory for the martyrs” after Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, and has a long history of promoting terrorists on its campus. The university has hosted funerals and parades for terrorists on its campus, where several buildings are named after terrorists. 

Stefanik said Harvard is continuing to “fail its Jewish students, faculty, and community,” by maintaining its “public partnership with known Hamas collaborator, Birzeit University”

Harvard’s three-week course, which kicked off last week and ends on August 17, is “designed to introduce students to the social, structural, political, and historical aspects that determine Palestinian health beyond the biological basis of disease,” according to the program’s website.

Birzeit’s relationship with Harvard came under scrutiny after The Daily Wire revealed the Palestinian university’s connections with terrorists and terrorist sympathizers.

Hanan Ashwari, chairman of Birzeit University’s board of trustees, denied that Hamas sexually assaulted Israelis on October 7, and has defended Hezbollah and the lynching of Israeli soldiers, according to CAMERA UK.

On its website, Birzeit boasts that it is a “thorn in the side of the occupation,” and says it is committed to making an impact through “resistance.” 

In 2023, the Birzeit student body elected two blocs affiliated with terrorist organizations—Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)—into the student government. In the election, which had a 77 percent voter turnout, the Hamas-affiliated Islamic bloc won 25 of the 51 seats, while the PFLP picked up six, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Last month, five members of the student council were arrested for attempting to carry out a terror attack on behalf of Hamas. The students were found with an assault rifle and thousands of dollars of cash from Hamas, the Times of Israel reported.