The conflict in the Gaza Strip has global repercussions. All over the world, in addition to the horror caused by the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population, as a result of the Israeli military response to the terrible massacre committed by the attack of Hamas, debates began in the political sphere, but also in the fields of identity, culture and prejudices related to racism.

The debates in the United States were particularly intense, and the political price of the government’s support for the offensive in Tel Aviv will most likely be the presidency of the republic itself. Younger generations and black voters, for example, who were key to Biden’s election, feel frustrated and will not support his campaign even if they know that the other option is not better in terms of their expectations.

One of the most significant victims of these cultural battles was Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard, who was forced to leave her position under national political pressure. Events were accelerated because a day after the Hamas action, a letter signed by 30 student organizations was published, accusing the Israeli government of colonialism and attacking the university itself for its investment policy. The communication was immediately labeled as “anti-Semitic” and the president had to issue several written statements dissociating the institution from the statement.

In less than three weeks, a conservative New York newspaper published anonymous complaints of plagiarism in Dr. Gay’s thesis. Independent investigators appointed by the university concluded that the error consisted of inappropriately citing various points in the dissertation, but found no evidence of misconduct in their investigation (research on bad behavior). An additional discussion also took place on the fact that in this case the media’s definition of plagiarism is clearly the product of a political scenario and not a conventional technical reading, which makes the entire scientific research vulnerable to the interests and pressures of partisan actors.

The president of Harvard, who had been in office for six months, was suddenly exposed to public ridicule. Not only those accusations, but also others that had to do with the lack of sufficient knowledge to manage the university. Claudine Gay, a doctor of political science with a prize for the best thesis from Harvard, previously studied at Stanford with a prize for the best undergraduate paper in economics, daughter of Haitian immigrants, had to resign from her post at the beginning of this year.

No society is safe from the political use of arguments to attack or disqualify people, but when they construct alternative realities, based on racial or ideological prejudices, that seek to shape academic reflection and scientific research, they erode one of the most important elements of social cohesion. In the United States, the consequence is likely to be a return of unpredictable character. (OR)