By Debra Rich Gettleman

“We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” This statement was signed by over 30 Harvard student groups this past week.

Well, it’s about time someone took action against idiocy, bigotry, and ignorance.  If 30+ student organizations at Harvard blame Israel for the malevolent terrorist attacks on innocent civilians in Gaza last Saturday, they ought to be willing to sign their names to that statement.

The Backlash

Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, is tired of careless University students making outrageous claims and hiding behind prestigious learning institutions. If those students want to express their heinous opinions, they need to do it publicly and Ackman and a host of other high profile business leaders want to know their names so they can be sure to never hire any of them in the future.

Of course, Harvard is declining to share the students’ names who belong to the groups that signed the letter blaming Israel solely for the vicious Hamas attacks. Ex Harvard president and Treasury Secretary, Larry Summers, agrees with Ackman but ultimately softened and excused the student’s behavior as “naïve and foolish” noting that “Many of these groups never saw the statement before it went out.”

In a CNN business report by Matt Egan on Thursday, Ackman’s Twitter (X) post was quoted stating, “One should not be able to hide behind a corporate shield when issuing statements supporting the actions of terrorists.” Jonathan Neman, CEO of Sweetgreen restaurant chain, agrees with Ackman posting on X “I would like to know so I know never to hire these people.”

Money Talks

With the fear of monetary reprisals and professional blacklisting, students who signed these documents are suddenly issuing statements of apology and claiming ignorance. They’re even accusing Ackman of harassment and contending that they didn’t have a chance to read the statement until it was too late. Well, welcome to adulthood where the council you keep matters and belonging to a hate group speaks volumes about your morals, principals, and character. Frankly, lamenting about not having time to read the statement before signing it sounds a lot like our lame political process where congress is pressured to sign thousand-page bills and instructed to read those bills only after they pass them.

And it’s not just Harvard. New York University’s Student Bar Association also came out saying that Israel bears total responsibility for all loss of life in this unprecedented attack. In response, a major Law Firm, Winston & Strawn rescinded a job offer to one of NYUs law students.

The Anti-Defamation League has called on CEOs to continue to speak out against hate and to sign a pledge to fight antisemitism. CEO of ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, affirmed, “For companies that have Jewish employees, Jewish customers, Jewish investors, Jewish shareholders, or simply have a modicum of a conscience, this one should be easy.”

I praise every CEO who is standing up against the disgraceful, inhuman torture and heinous celebration of death that Hamas, Hezbollah, and even Harvard have publicly endorsed. If it was sheer ignorance or naivete on the part of all of these college groups and law school students, then it is time for them to learn that actions have consequences. You cannot be reckless with words. You cannot be indifferent to hatred. And you cannot claim innocence when you are supporting organizations that maim, torture, and desecrate the dignity of life.