“Perhaps the doxxing trucks will give President Gay some perspective on what it is like to be Jewish and/or Israeli on the
@Harvard campus,” Ackman wrote on X on Wednesday.
Patrick McMullan via Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images
Critics of Harvard’s president Claudine Gay have deployed billboard trucks asking her to resign.Bill Ackman has slammed the move, though he thinks the trucks could offer Gay a lesson in empathy.Ackman said the trucks could let Gay understand what it was like to be Jewish on campus.
Bill Ackman may have slammed the doxxing trucks at Harvard, but the billionaire investor also appears to think there could be a silver lining to them.
“Perhaps the doxxing trucks will give President Gay some perspective on what it is like to be Jewish and/or Israeli on the @Harvard campus,” the Harvard alumnus wrote on X on Wednesday.
Critics of Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, have called for her resignation after her controversial testimony at last week’s congressional hearing on on-campus antisemitism.
During the hearing, Gay did not unequivocally condemn the genocide of Jews despite being asked several times if such rhetoric would violate Harvard’s rules on bullying and harassment.
The ensuing backlash has seen some of Gay’s critics deploying billboard trucks on Harvard’s campus calling for her resignation. Similar trucks were also sent to the University of Pennsylvania, agitating for then-president Liz Magill’s resignation.
“Claudine Gay: the best friend Hamas ever had,” one truck’s LED screen read.
“Claudine Gay REFUSES to protect Jewish students,” read another message.
.@Harvard‘s board won’t hold Claudine Gay accountable, so we will. We’re back at Harvard with four mobile billboards this week because antisemitism has no place in America, especially not at so-called “elite” universities.
Visit https://t.co/W2doS6kuvP to join our fight. pic.twitter.com/Z09zJDZwUU
— Accuracy In Media (@AccuracyInMedia) December 12, 2023
The trucks first appeared in October. At the time, they drove around campus displaying faces and names of students, along with claims that these students signed a pro-Hamas letter.
In both instances, the trucks were deployed by the conservative organization Accuracy in Media.
“To be clear, I am not recommending the trucks continue, but the experience to date might provide some useful perspective,” Ackman wrote in a subsequent X post on Wednesday.
Ackman — who has been on the warpath with his alma mater since October — also slammed Gay’s congressional statement.
“In her short tenure as President, Claudine Gay has done more damage to the reputation of Harvard University than any individual in our nearly 500-year history,” Ackman wrote in his third open letter to Harvard’s leadership on Sunday.
Ackman, however, maintains that using doxxing trucks to pressure Gay to resign does cross a line.
“We can agree or disagree with @Harvard, and we can support or criticize President Gay’s leadership. But to disrupt her home with these trucks is unfair to her and her family, and an insult to all of us,” Ackman wrote on X on Wednesday.
“Please stop. Thank you,” he continued.
On Tuesday, Harvard said that Gay would remain in her post despite the backlash.
The Harvard Corporation, one of the school’s governing boards, said in a statement that Harvard’s initial statement on Hamas’ terror attack on October 7 “should have been an immediate, direct, and unequivocal condemnation.”
“Calls for genocide are despicable and contrary to fundamental human values. President Gay has apologized for how she handled her congressional testimony and has committed to redoubling the University’s fight against antisemitism,” the statement continued.
Representatives for Ackman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.