US sues Harvard over treatment of Jewish and Israeli students, seeks billions of dollars

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump’s administration escalated its attacks on Harvard University on March 20, as it sued the Ivy League school to recover billions of dollars for allegedly failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students.

Harvard has been a central focus of the president’s campaign to force changes at major US universities, which Mr Trump has derided for alleged antisemitic and “radical left” ideologies, by threatening to withhold or take back federal funding.

In a complaint filed in Boston federal court, the US Department of Justice said Harvard remains deliberately indifferent to hostility on its campus and has intentionally refused to enforce its campus rules when victims are Jews or Israelis.

“This sent the clear message to Harvard’s Jewish and Israeli community that the indifference was not an accident; they were being intentionally excluded and effectively denied equal access to educational opportunities,” the complaint said.

Harvard will defend against the lawsuit, which a spokesperson called “yet another pretextual and retaliatory action by the administration for refusing to turn over control of Harvard to the federal government.”

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based school also defended its efforts to address antisemitism on campus, which have included expanding training, improving disciplinary processes, and adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism.

“Harvard cares deeply about members of our Jewish and Israeli community and remains committed to ensuring they are embraced, respected, and can thrive on our campus,” the spokesperson said. “Harvard’s efforts demonstrate the very opposite of deliberate indifference.”

Trump administration has challenged other schools

Many schools have been accused by the Republican president’s administration, as well as in private lawsuits, of turning a blind eye to antisemitism on campus since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023.

Among them has been Columbia University, which last July agreed to pay US$220 million (S$282 million) to restore federal research money. The Justice Department sued the University of California system in February for allegedly subjecting Jewish and Israeli employees at the University of California, Los Angeles to rampant antisemitism.

Most of March 20’s lawsuit recapitulates prior incidents and accusations involving Harvard, instead of offering new instances of alleged discrimination.

According to the complaint, Harvard’s indifference to Jews and Israelis violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination based on race, colour and national origin in programmes receiving federal funding.

It came less than two months after Mr Trump said his administration was seeking US$1 billion (S$1.28 billion) from Harvard to settle probes into school policies, after a published report said Mr Trump dropped a demand for only US$200 million. The administration also accused Harvard in a Feb 13 lawsuit of failing to produce documents for a probe into whether its admissions process was biased against white applicants.

US District Judge Richard Stearns, an appointee of former Democratic president Bill Clinton, was assigned to March 20’s lawsuit. REUTERS