At Harvard, two reports published by the university indicate an anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim climate on campus

Two separate reports on Harvard University, released Tuesday, April 29, found an anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim climate on the campus of the prestigious American university, which is being targeted by Donald Trump. Both reports urge the institution to take action to address this.

"Harvard cannot—and will not—tolerate intolerance. We will continue to protect all members of our community and safeguard them from harassment," Harvard President Alan Garber pledged in a letter accompanying the two reports. He initiated the two investigations and promised to "oversee the implementation of the recommendations" they made.

These two reports, several hundred pages long, based in particular on questionnaires and hundreds of testimonies from students and supervisors conducted since January 2024, are being released at a time when the university located near Boston (Massachusetts) has drawn the ire of Donald Trump. The American president recently described it as a "far-left anti-Semitic institution" , a "progressive mess" and a "threat to democracy" .

Harvard, like other renowned American universities, Columbia in particular, is accused by the Republican president of having allowed anti-Semitism to flourish on its campus during the student protests against the Israeli war in Gaza following the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

An initial working group on anti-Semitism and anti-Israel attitudes, composed primarily of faculty members but also students, found that both phenomena "have been fueled, practiced, and tolerated, not only at Harvard, but also more broadly in academia." The report urges the centuries-old university to "become a leader in the fight against anti-Semitism and anti-Israel attitudes."

A separate working group, focusing on anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian views, concluded that there was "a deep-rooted sense of fear among students, faculty, and staff ." Respondents described "a sense of insecurity, abandonment, threat, and isolation, as well as a pervasive climate of intolerance," the authors wrote.

Harvard, the oldest university in the United States and one of the highest-ranked in the world, has distinguished itself by being the first to sue the Trump administration over a freeze on more than $2 billion in federal funding, which was imposed after the renowned institution refused to comply with a series of the president's demands.

Donald Trump, who criticizes universities for being hotbeds of progressive protest, wants to have a say in student admissions procedures, faculty hiring, and even programs.