Harvard alum says university fights Trump more than antisemitism on campus

Harvard alumnus Jonathan Harounoff told Fox News Digital on Thursday that Harvard is putting more effort into fighting against the Trump administration than addressing antisemitism on campus.

Harounoff said Harvard should not be a place for endorsing violence and harboring students or employees who have "very unambiguous terrorist sympathies."

"I suspect that the reason why Harvard is pushing back is just because it wants to protect all of its student population and that may be the case, but at the same time, the university - any university, any employer - can't expect the administration to accept students or employees who have very unambiguous terrorist sympathies," he told Fox News Digital.

Harounoff continued, "If those do exist, then they should be addressed head on, but we've seen on plenty of college campuses students and people who have no connection to anything to do with the university - on Columbia's campus and elsewhere."

"You have people who unambiguously wave the flags of terrorist organizations, whether it's Hamas or Hezbollah, and who are chanting very proudly these openly antisemitic and anti-Western and anti-American slogans on a Western American, what's meant to be philosemitic campus, and that is not acceptable," he said. "And those are not just innocent protests - they're open calls for violence. The university should not be a space for endorsing such violence."

The Department of Homeland Security is eliminating the student visa program at Harvard University due to "pro-terrorist conduct" at campus protests.

A court temporarily paused the Trump administration's move to cancel Harvard's student visa program after the university filed a lawsuit. The judge granted Harvard's request for a temporary restraining order to preserve the status quo while the case plays out in court. 

Harounoff told Fox News Digital that one of the proudest moments of his personal and professional career was getting into Harvard.

"As an international graduate student coming from England, my family was overjoyed, and it was a privilege, and it is a privilege of a lifetime. Harvard is the most famous university in the world. For a long time, it sat on the pantheon of great universities, educational institutions out there for people of all backgrounds, faiths, nationalities," he said.

"And with that immense global recognition comes huge responsibility," Harounoff continued. "And that's why it's especially difficult and disappointing to see the university fight against the White House in recent months, much harder than it ever appeared to fight against antisemitism, the rampant antisemitism that had been enveloping the Ivy League campus, especially since October the 7."