Fear | Fight for Harvard (1/3) | Doku HD

After October 7, 2023, Harvard came into focus: accusations of anti-Semitism and the resignation of President Claudine Gay after only six months played into the hands of the MAGA camp. Pro-Palestinian activism was suppressed, arrests stirred fear – and the protest fell silent. A targeted campaign against critical voices at US universities. The Hamas attack on Israel on 7. October 2023 marked a turning point – also for the US elite university Harvard. Just a few months after President Claudine Gay took office, a crisis escalated that put the university at the center of a political battle. A statement by pro-Palestinian student groups and the subsequent protests against the Gaza war were instrumentalized by the media and politics. The MAGA camp used the opportunity to spread the thesis that American higher education is riddled with anti-Semitism. The controversy culminated in Gay’s hearing before Congress. Her answer to the question of how to deal with calls for genocide against the Jews at university caused international outrage. Shortly thereafter, allegations of plagiarism followed, and after only six months she resigned – a success for the conservative hardliners. But the offensive against Harvard has a longer history. Already during the Vietnam War, universities became centers of protest, and politicians such as Richard Nixon declared "the professors" enemies of the state. Donald Trump took up this fight again: After returning to the White House, he set up a task force against anti-Semitism and put financial pressure on Harvard. In parallel, the conservative Heritage Foundation published a roadmap to combat pro-Palestinian activists with the “Project Esther”. The arrest of two foreign students, Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk, by the US immigration authority ICE, exacerbated the fear on campus. Critical voices fall silent while the government is targeting “left-wing universities”. The message is clear: anyone who works for Palestine risks repression. The freedom of science is at stake – and with it the future of political discourse in the US. Documentary series by Robert Libetti, Mike Shum and Sandrine Rigaud (USA 2025, 30 min) Here we go to the next