Israel-Gaza tensions mount at Wellesley College over faculty demands in letter
The president of Wellesley College on Saturday rebuffed a letter from some faculty members who want administration officials to state that criticism of Israel is not antisemitism.
“I want to be clear that Wellesley will not make such a statement,” President Paula A. Johnson wrote in a publicly posted statement addressed to “The Wellesley College Community” on Saturday. “Some anti-Israel and anti-Zionist speech can, in fact, create a hostile environment for many of our students. ... statements of the kind expressed in the letter can threaten the existence of Israel and increase fears for Jewish students on our campus.”
The original letter from the faculty included 19 signatures and was posted publicly on Saturday. The authors called on the administration “to make a statement clarifying that criticism of the state of Israel and Zionism is a legitimate scholarly and political position and not an expression of antisemitism.”
The letter also called for “an attempt to open a space of dialogue among faculty, staff, and students who feel compelled to discuss Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza and its police and militia raids in the West Bank as well as the broader historical context of the occupation.”
The authors added that Palestinians are “subjected to accusations of antisemitism for challenging their own occupation and expulsion.”
The exchange marks yet another campus battle over the the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. Heads of major universities, including Harvard’s Claudine Gay, have been publicly taken to task for what critics say is a reluctance to condemn antisemitism from student groups supporting the Palestinian cause.
At Wellesley, Johnson also straddled the issue of free speech on campus, writing in her response that the college “embraces free expression,” and that people on both sides of the issue can voice opinions, including opposition to the Israeli government.
“We recognize that this is a very difficult time in the world, and we are all deeply pained by the loss of innocent civilian lives in Gaza and Israel,” Johnson wrote. “But at times like this it is even more important that we strive to build an inclusive community that values free expression and recognizes the inherent dignity of different lived experiences.”
Johnson added, “Wellesley condemns in the strongest terms antisemitism, as well as anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian discrimination and all other forms of hate on our campus.”