{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-sullivan-condemns-anti-semitic-takeover-of-harvard-library", "ICYMI: Sullivan Condemns Anti-Semitic Takeover of Harvard Library", "2023-12-18", "2023", "2023-12", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Dan Sullivan", "S001198", "www.sullivan.senate.gov", "sullivan", "https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases?PageNum_rs=17", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014In an opinion published on Saturday in the Wall Street Journal, U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) describes his confrontation with anti-Israel protesters during a visit to his alma mater, Harvard University. Sen. Sullivan encountered the hostile protesters while inside Harvard\u2019s Widener reading room.\n\n\u201cImagine if you were an 18-year-old Jewish or Israeli student, or even a pro-Israel Catholic like me, and you wanted to study for your chemistry final in the Widener Reading Room on a Sunday morning,\u201d Sen. Sullivan writes in the Wall Street Journal. \u201cImagine being confronted by this protest, obviously condoned by Harvard\u2019s leadership and commandeered by the Palestine Solidarity Committee, the group behind the notorious statement that holds \u2018the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence\u2019 in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack.\n\n\u201cWould you feel welcome in Harvard\u2019s most famous library? Would you feel rattled, intimidated, and harassed by the anti-Israel banner screaming \u2018Stop the Genocide in Gaza\u2019? As Jason Riley has written, \u2018If accusing Israel of genocide isn\u2019t defamation of Jewish people, I don\u2019t know what is.\u2019 If you were that 18-year-old student, would you believe the vacuous statement recently put out by the Harvard Corp., after it decided not to fire Ms. Gay, that \u2018disruptions of the classroom experience will not be tolerated\u2019?\u201d\n\nSenator Sullivan says he plans to work with a bipartisan group of his colleagues in Congress \u201cto save these important and once-respected institutions from themselves and their weak leaders who have lost their moral compasses.\u201d\n\n* * * * *\n\nOpinion: An Antisemitic Occupation of Harvard\u2019s Widener Library\n\nClaudine Gay promised to prevent \u2018disruptions of the classroom experience.\u2019 How\u2019s that working out?\n\nBy: U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan\n\nDecember 16, 2023\n\nI was in Boston last weekend for the Army-Navy game. The day after the game, five days after Harvard President Claudine Gay\u2019s disastrous testimony before Congress, I decided to walk the campus to reminisce about my time at Harvard, where I earned my undergraduate degree in 1987, and reflect about what had gone wrong at this once-great university.\n\nI visited places that held significance to me while I was there: St. Paul\u2019s Catholic Church, my freshman dorm and, of course, Widener Library\u2014a monument to learning, study and contemplation that sits like a temple in the middle of Harvard Yard.\n\nAs I did during my undergraduate years, I spent several minutes staring up at the powerful mural by John Singer Sargent, \u201cDeath and Victory.\u201d It\u2019s one of two Sargent paintings memorializing the men of Harvard who sacrificed their lives for our country in World War I. I\u2019ve thought about the painting often throughout the years\u2014including when I made the decision to join the Marine Corps.\n\nWhen I walked upstairs to the famous Widener Reading Room, I couldn\u2019t believe my eyes. Nearly every student in the packed room was wearing a kaffiyeh. Fliers attached to their individual laptops, as well as affixed to some of the lamps in the reading room, read: \u201cNo Normalcy During Genocide\u2014Justice for Palestine.\u201d A young woman handed the fliers to all who entered. A large banner spread across one end of the room stated in blazing blood-red letters, \u201cStop the Genocide in Gaza.\u201d\n\nCurious about what was going on, I was soon in a cordial discussion with two of the organizers of this anti-Israel protest inside of one the world\u2019s great libraries\u2014not outside in Harvard Yard, where such protests belong. They told me they were from Saudi Arabia and the West Bank. I told them I was a U.S. senator who had recently returned from a bipartisan Senate trip to Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. I mentioned the meetings I had. I expressed my condolences when they told me their relatives had been killed by Israeli military action in Gaza.\n\nOne then asked whether I supported a cease-fire in Gaza. I said I didn\u2019t, because I strongly believe Israel had the right both to defend itself and to destroy Hamas given the horrendous attacks it perpetrated against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7.\n\nTheir tone immediately changed. \u201cYou\u2019re a murderer,\u201d one said. \u201cYou support genocide,\u201d said the other.\n\n\u201cExcuse me, what did you say?\u201d I asked in disbelief.\n\n. . .\n\nAs a U.S. senator who has been through two election campaigns, I\u2019ve had plenty of iPhones aggressively shoved in my face by members of radical groups. Nevertheless, I was shocked and, again, ashamed of my alma mater. All of this\u2014the anti-Israel protests, the big banner, the fliers, the iPhones, the taunting questions\u2014took place inside the Widener Library, a revered place of quiet study for tens of thousands of Harvard students and alumni.\n\nMy thoughts then turned to Harvard undergrads. Imagine if you were an 18-year-old Jewish or Israeli student, or even a pro-Israel Catholic like me, and you wanted to study for your chemistry final in the Widener Reading Room on a Sunday morning. Imagine being confronted by this protest, obviously condoned by Harvard\u2019s leadership and commandeered by the Palestine Solidarity Committee, the group behind the notorious statement that holds \u201cthe Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence\u201d in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack.\n\nWould you feel welcome in Harvard\u2019s most famous library? Would you feel rattled, intimidated and harassed by the anti-Israel banner screaming \u201cStop the Genocide in Gaza\u201d? As Jason Riley has written, \u201cIf accusing Israel of genocide isn\u2019t defamation of Jewish people, I don\u2019t know what is.\u201d If you were that 18-year-old student, would you believe the vacuous statement recently put out by the Harvard Corp., after it decided not to fire Ms. Gay, that \u201cdisruptions of the classroom experience will not be tolerated\u201d?\n\nIf students were handing out fliers and hanging large banners in the Widener Library Reading Room denouncing, say, affirmative action or NCAA rules allowing men to compete in women\u2019s swim meets, Harvard leaders would shut them down in a minute. But an anti-Israel protest by an antisemitic group, commandeering the entire Widener Reading Room during finals? No problem.\n\nIs that what Ms. Gay meant when she testified that \u201cit depends on the context\u201d?\n\nNot all university leadership is so craven, morally bankrupt and afraid of the most vocal, radical sects of their own student bodies. I serve on the board of visitors for the U.S. Naval Academy, which is the No. 1 public university in America. The contrast couldn\u2019t be starker between the service academies and the Ivy League on issues like civil discourse, so-called safe spaces, trigger warnings, American history and our unique and, yes, exceptional place in the world.\n\nAmerica\u2019s so-called elite universities used to be a positive source of our nation\u2019s power, strength and influence. No longer. I believe over the past several weeks a bipartisan consensus has emerged: It is time for Congress to save these important and once-respected institutions from themselves and their weak leaders who have lost their moral compasses. I intend to work with my colleagues in the Senate to do so.\n\nClick here to read the full WSJ opinion article.\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:56:20Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-sullivan-condemns-anti-semitic-takeover-of-harvard-library"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5873569063842297, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}