'Not productive to blacklist kids': Vivek Ramaswamy calls anti-Israel Harvard students 'simple fools' but…

US Republican presidential hopeful, Vivek Ramaswamy, in a call to oust ‘cancel culture’, has said that it is simply wrong of companies to refuse to hire the Harvard University students who signed a letter placing the blame for the Israel-Hamas war squarely on Israel. He said that college students take wrong decisions and back “boneheadedly wrong ideas” but that is no reason to blacklist them. He also called them “simple fools”.

“The Harvard student groups who co-signed the anti-Israel letter are simple fools. But it’s not productive for companies to blacklist kids for being members of student groups that make dumb political statements on campus. Colleges are spaces for students to experiment with ideas & sometimes kids join clubs that endorse boneheadedly wrong ideas,” said the Republican. He said that he too has been very vocal in criticising left-wing cancel culture.

Citing examples of people who were fired for wearing Trump hats or students who were not getting hired unless they signed the DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) pledges, Ramaswamy said companies refusing to hire the said Harvard students are equally wrong.

“This isn’t a legal point, it’s a cultural point. I say this as someone who vehemently disagrees with those Harvard student groups. Those calling for blacklisting students right now are responding from a place of understandable hurt, but I’m confident that in the fullness of time, they will agree with me on the wisdom of avoiding these cancel-culture tactics,” he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Following Hamas’ attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent retaliation with airstrikes in Gaza, over 30 pro-Palestine groups in Harvard condemned Israel for being ‘entirely responsible’ for all unfolding violence. The Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups, in a joint statement, said that Hamas’ attack did not happen in a vacuum. They said that millions of Palestinians have been forced to live in an open-air prison for the past two decades. They said that as the war commenced, Palestinians will be forced to bear the full brunt of Israel’s violence.

The Harvard groups accused Israel of systematised land seizures, routine airstrikes, arbitrary detentions, family separations, and targeted killings. The Palestinian ordeal has entered “uncharted territory”, they said.

The anti-Israel letter drew severe criticism on social media, with many questioning how the actions of Hamas can be ignored. A board member of one of the groups said that the statement was “egregious” and that the group has rescinded its name from the list. She stepped down from her post and said that she never saw the statement before the group signed it.

Meanwhile, Harvard University President Claudine Gay said that the statement does not speak for the institution as a whole or its leadership. "Let me also state ... that while our students have the right to speak for themselves, no student group — not even 30 student groups — speaks for Harvard University or its leadership," Gay said. Prominent Harvard alumni also denounced the statement of the student organisations.

Also read: 'Harvard parents, talk to your kids': Experts slam students justifying Hamas attack in Israel

Also read: 'Didn't even see statement,' Harvard student group board member resigns over communique blaming Israel for Hamas attacks

Also read: Israel-Palestine war: Billionaire Bill Ackman demands list of Harvard students who backed Hamas to be made public