New York Post columnist Rikki Schlott weighs in on a letter from Harvard University student groups about the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on The Evening Edit.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman called on Harvard to release the membership lists of more than 30 student groups that signed a letter blaming Hamas’ terror attacks over the weekend solely on Israel.
Ackman, the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, who received both his bachelor’s degree and MBA from Harvard, called on the university to release the names so he and other executives could avoid inadvertently hiring them in the future.
“I have been asked by a number of CEOs if Harvard would release a list of the members of each of the organizations that have issued the letter assigning sole responsibility for Hamas’ heinous acts to Israel, so as to insure that none of us inadvertently hire any of their members,” Ackman wrote Tuesday in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“If, in fact, their members support the letter they have released, the names of the signatories should be made public so their views are publicly known,” he continued. “One should not be able to hide behind a corporate shield when issuing statements supporting the actions of terrorists, who, we now learn, have beheaded babies, among other inconceivably despicable acts.”
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Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, called for Harvard to release the names of students who agreed with the anti-Israel letter so that he and other CEOs could avoid hiring them. (REUTERS/Brendan McDermid / Getty Images)
Other executives echoed Ackman’s sentiments in the replies to his post, which was pinned to the top of his account on X as of Tuesday afternoon, and included a copy of the letter with the Harvard groups that signed on.
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“I would like to know so I know never to hire these people,” Jonathan Neman, CEO and co-founder of Sweetgreen, wrote in response to Ackman’s post.
“Same,” David Duel, CEO of EasyHealth, said in a reply to Neman’s comment.
A salvo of rockets is fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza as an Israeli missile launched from the Iron Dome defense missile system attempts to intercept the rockets over the city of Netivot in southern Israel Oct. 8, 2023. (Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Although the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s website states that it’s “dedicated to supporting the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, justice, and equality through raising awareness, advocacy, and non-violent resistance,” its letter neither condemned the violence of Hamas’ terror attacks nor offered any expression of remorse for the murder of scores of civilians.
Following the controversy created by the letter, the groups that signed on to the version circulated on Sunday removed the names of their groups from the letter.
A version of the letter published on Google Docs said, “This statement was co-authored by a coalition of Palestine solidarity groups at Harvard. For student safety, the names of all original signing organizations have been concealed at this time.”
The Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.
Fighters from the Hamas terror group crossed into Israel from Gaza Saturday, killing around 1,000 in the worst terror attack in Israel’s history. (Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Harvard University President Claudine Gay on Tuesday released a statement saying, “As the events of recent days continue to reverberate, let there be no doubt that I condemn the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas. Such inhumanity is abhorrent, whatever one’s individual views of the origins of the longstanding conflicts in the region.”
