The leading U.S. law firm Davis Polk has withdrawn employment offers from three law students at Harvard and Columbia universities over their comments about the Israel-Hamas conflict, NBC News reported Tuesday.
The move followed a public furor over open letters published by university groups blaming Israel for the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas that left more than 1,300 people dead, including at least 30 Americans.
The letters led to a significant backlash among university donors, employers, alumni and students.
Harvard University who gloats about receiving tens of millions of dollars in U.S. aid has faculty members on payroll and registered students openly blaming ISRAEL for the attacks of Hamas terrorists on women and children— including at least 14 Americans— in a signed letter.
As… pic.twitter.com/RldZRwlami
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 11, 2023
NBC News reported that Davis Polk Managing Partner Neil Barr announced the news in an internal memo to the firm’s employees that was first published by small-business lawyer Joseph Gerstel on LinkedIn. The report said the firm confirmed it was authentic.
“These statements are simply contrary to our firm’s values and we thus concluded that rescinding these offers was appropriate in upholding our responsibility to provide a safe and inclusive work environment for all Davis Polk employees,” Barr wrote.
“For this reason and to ensure we continue to maintain a supportive and inclusive work environment, the student leaders responsible for signing on to these statements are no longer welcome in our firm; and their offers of employment have thus been rescinded,” he continued.
The names of the students who had their offers rescinded were not mentioned in the email.
The statements, which were authored by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and co-signed by 33 other Harvard student organizations, demanded that the university “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”
“Today’s events did not occur in a vacuum,” the open letter said. “For the last two decades, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison. Israeli officials promise to ‘open the gates of hell,’ and the massacres in Gaza have already commenced.”
“In the coming days, Palestinians will be forced to bear the full brunt of Israel’s violence. The apartheid regime is the only one to blame,” it continued. “We call on the Harvard community to take action to stop the ongoing annihilation of Palestinians.”
A similar letter was issued at Columbia.
Although the identity of the students who had their offers withdrawn is not available, the names and faces of some of those who signed the letter were last week displayed on a truck driving around the Harvard campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Harvard students who blamed Israel after Hamas’ terrorist attacks say they’re afraid for their safety, as a truck revealing students’ names and their faces continued to drive around the Cambridge campus on Thursday. https://t.co/PUtfMhngw2
— Boston Herald (@bostonherald) October 12, 2023
The truck, whose tour was organized by Accuracy in Media, described the students as “Harvard’s Leading Antisemites.”
The U.S. has largely offered its backing to Israel’s military response in the wake of the terrorist attacks by Hamas.
President Joe Biden made an official visit to Israel on Wednesday to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He also announced a $100 million aid package to support Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
