The barbaric attack by Hamas against Israel, and Israel’s forceful response, are stirring up powerful emotions across the globe. The American college campus is no exception, but the reactions there have taken a dark turn.

Students at colleges and universities across the country are openly and enthusiastically supporting the horrific and sickening acts perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli civilians. More than 30 student organizations at Harvard University blame Israel for the slaughter of some 1,300 of its people at the hands of Hamas.

A joint statement released by student groups there reads in part: “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence. … The apartheid regime is the only one to blame.”

And that’s a mild version of the vitriol and complete disregard for human decency coming from these student groups. Students for Justice for Palestine, for example, called the slaughter of Israeli civilians a “win” and encouraged a day of resistance. The group referred to the United States and Canada as “turtle island,” a nod to the Native American term for North America.

SJP also instructs its leaders to reframe the conversation whenever they’re presented with factual information about Hamas and its atrocities.

Meanwhile, Harvard parents, professors, and many students are speaking out against these organizations, including former Harvard President Lawrence Summers, who wondered why there was radio silence coming from the same Harvard leadership that’s had no problem taking stances on important issues in the past such as the death of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter protests, and the war in Ukraine.

As Summers posted on X, “The silence from Harvard’s leadership, so far, coupled with a vocal and widely reported student groups’ statement blaming Israel solely, has allowed Harvard to appear at best neutral towards acts of terror against the Jewish state of Israel.”

Conversation and spirited discussion are a good and necessary thing, but evil must be called out for what it is.

An open letter from a growing list of Harvard faculty did just that: “Sometimes there is such a thing as evil, and it is incumbent upon educators and leaders to call it out, as they have with school shootings and terrorist attacks. It is imperative that our academic leadership, whose good faith we do not doubt, state this clearly and unequivocally.”

Eventually, the Harvard administration gave in to mounting pressure by releasing a statement from President Claudine Gay, which said: “As the events of recent days continue to reverberate, let there be no doubt that I condemn the terrorist atrocities perpetuated by Hamas. Such inhumanity is abhorrent, whatever one’s individual views of the origins of longstanding conflicts in the region. … 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.”

The statement would have been fitting and appropriate had Gay not waited to find which way the political wind was blowing before taking a stance.

All this hateful rhetoric is troubling, but we shouldn’t be surprised. For years, parents have sent their children into the halls of academia to be brainwashed by anti-American, anti-Western, and anti-Israel professors who almost unanimously identify with the Democrat Party.

Once a laboratory for vigorous debate and the free expression of ideas, the academic world has created a culture in which students are encouraged to break up into various leftist identity groups, each making demands and shouting down anyone with an opposing viewpoint. The result is predictable.

Some of our so-called brightest minds have trouble thinking for themselves without any knowledge of history or current events. A few years back, some Portland State University students were ready to make cash donations to support Hamas, no questions asked.

As one Harvard doctoral student writes: “Not only have our fellow students failed to condemn this proto-genocide; they have justified and celebrated it. The authors and signatories of this statement, men and women with whom we share dormitories and libraries, have exposed themselves as worse than common anti-Semites. They are enthusiastic proponents of our slaughter, a vanguard of apologists for those who seek the extermination of the Jewish people.”

Today’s college graduates typically emerge with four years of leftist training in political activism and moral absolutism at the ready, and they enter society with the same narrow-minded and self-serving agenda. And some of them become members of Congress who can’t help but respond to the deaths of innocent people with political talking points.

It hasn’t been a good look for academia this week, but let’s hope the backlash leaves a lasting mark.