BGU President Supports Community by Publicly Condemning Hamas
BGU President Supports Community by Publicly Condemning Hamas
October 18, 2023
Ben-Gurion University president, Daniel Chamovitz condemns the horrific acts of terrorism committed by Hamas, while attending shivas (mournings) for the 50 students and employess killed in the violence.
The Chronicle — As the violence in the Middle East entered a horrific and deadly chapter, with Hamas’s fatal attacks on Israeli civilians and retaliatory strikes on Gaza claiming Palestinian lives, college leaders on campuses across the United States tried to find the right words.
It has become routine for presidents and chancellors to speak out on issues of the day, adding their voices to conversations around national and world events like Black Lives Matter, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and even the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on abortion. For many on campus, articulating such public positions is seen as part of institutional leadership.
But even as this expectation has become more ingrained, the scrutiny of presidential statements has become more intense, as the partisan landscape around higher education has grown increasingly more polarized.
Daniel A. Chamovitz, the U.S.-born president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, called American college leaders’ middle-of-the-road statements “moral gymnastics.” When he spoke with The Chronicle, Chamovitz had just returned from shiva, or mourning, for one of the 50 Ben-Gurion students or employees who had been killed in the violence. His university is close to the border with Gaza.
“We expected an unequivocal condemnation of terrorism, not ‘yes, buts,’” Chamovitz said. “It never occurred to us that the leading universities of the United States would equivocate on something so clear.”
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