Letters
A few of the many messages sent to protest Harvard's pattern of hiring and training known war criminals and human rights abusers.
Please cc any such correspondence to ajmeharvard at gmail dot com.
Dear President Bok,
As many scholars have demonstrated, the militarization of US universities grows more intense each year, including the vast and growing reliance on funding from the Department of Defense and the services and the support of ROTC and military industrial recruiters.
The escalation of this militarization by Harvard's choice to accept Dan Halutz into the Business school is offensive to the idea of the university. Legal scholars recognize what he did in Lebanon as deeply criminal.
I attach a copy of a photograph of Halutz' contribution to knowledge. It shows the village of Bint Jebel in southern Lebanon.
Sincerely,
Catherine Lutz
(Harvard PhD, Social Anthropology, 1980)
Professor
Department of Anthropology and Watson Institute for International Studies
Brown University
Dear Mr. James,
I am writing to express my deep concern that the Harvard Business School would enroll Dan Halutz as a student. He is currently slated to be a student in your executive management short-course of May 2007. Mr. Halutz is a noted war criminal, responsible for the deaths of over 1000 Lebanese civilians during the Lebanon-Israel War of the Summer of 2006.
Dan Halutz was the head of the Israeli military in the Summer of 2006 in which capacity he personally orchestrated a policy of indiscriminate aerial bombardment that entailed widespread war crimes. Over 33 days, Israeli jets under his orders killed up to 1,200 Lebanese civilians and bombed houses, hospitals, ambulances, refineries, and roads. Some four thousand Lebanese were wounded and nearly a quarter of the country's four million people were driven from their homes. According to the Israeli government's own official inquiry Halutz's "personal involvement with decision making within the army and in coordination with the political echelon was dominant."
It is my sincere hope that such a prestigious institution as the Harvard Business School does not condone the type of atrocity that Mr. Halutz has perpetrated on the people of Lebanon. However, with your acceptance of him as a student on your management training program I fear you do just that.
The values that Mr. Halutz based his conduct of the Lebanon-Israel War of the Summer of 2006 were inhuman and immoral. They willfully disregarded international law and the rules of warfare. Under his leadership, armed force, including the use of cluster bombs which continue to maim and kill nearly one year after the end of the war, was used against unarmed civilians.
Please ensure that Mr. Halutz is not allowed to be a part of the Harvard Business School executive management course in which he is enrolled. Harvard should not be aiding the development of a known war criminal.
Sincerely,
Paul Beran, PhD.
Research Affiliate
Middle East Center
Northeastern University
Boston, MA
Dear Harvard staff and Admistrators.
I have written to adress a serious issue with you.
My name is Rotem Dan Mor, and I am a 25 year old Jewish Israeli citizan. I am Also a longtime peace activist and conscientious objector, active in many groups and intiaives bringing together Palestinians and Israelis in a shared vision for a life of peace and Justice in this war-torn land of ours. I have recently been informed that Dan Halutz, former chief of Staff of our military is participating in a special training program at your school .
The military actions that Dan Halutz has preseided over over his many years as an army officer (such as "trageted" assasinations, house demolitions, closures, curfues, mass detention, aressts without tfair trial and many more) are no doubt war crimes of a grave nature. These violent acts against the palestinian people and young Israeli conscripts have put both Israelis and Palestinians in grave danger and have acted to greatly increase the terrible violence inflicting our country. I would suggest, then, that you make it clear to Mr. Halutz that he is not welcome in your institution until he has fully taken responsibility for his actions, apologised for the great pain they have caused many people and makes sure (to the best of his ability) that they never happen again.
Until then I suggest that you do not provide him with your facilities as I wuoldn't provide him with mine.
I hope that you will weigh my request seriously and respond to it positively. You have the chance to do a great deed to all the people of this land.
Yours Trully,
Rotem
Dear Prof. James,
I am concerned to hear that the Harvard Business School is hosting Dan Halutz for its executive training program. The former Chief of Staff of the Israeli military, he was forced to resign this January because of his leading role in the war in Lebanon summer 2006. This saturation bombing resulted in the deaths of 1,400 Lebanese (the majority civilian) and 160 Israelis (the majority military). In his bombing, Halutz also targeted Lebanese civilian infrastructure, leveling major bridges and destroying civilian roads, power plants, and hospitals. On a personal level, this bombing resulted in the death of one of my friend's cousins, and destroyed a second friend's house.
Hosting a war criminal like Halutz is antithetical to the educational and moral rigor of Harvard University. He should be immediately expelled from the program and brought to trial for his violations of international law and crimes against humanity.
Best wishes,
Lora Gordon
Dear Messrs James, Bok, Light,
I am writing to express my profound opposition to Harvard's hospitality directed toward General Dan Halutz, who is now attending a two-month-long executive training seminar in the Harvard Business School. General Halutz is a seasoned war criminal, notable most recently for the 2006 Israeli assaults on Gaza and on Lebanon. He belongs in the Hague, in the dock; not in Cambridge, in the classroom. Please bring this travesty of justice and basic human decency to an end: include him out.
Sincerely,
James Holstun
Professor of English
SUNY Buffalo
I am in receipt of the "Wanted for Crimes of War" poster, naming Dan Halutz as a war criminal. This is absolutely true. He was the architect and acted as General for Israel's brutal invasion of Lebanon in Aug. '06. More than 1,000 Lebanese were killed, and for what? It amazes me that Harvard would allow this sort of person as a "student" in your prestigious executive education program. It really devalues the program. I doubt that you would have allowed Augosto Pinochet the same "honour."-Given the Israeli Defence Force's (IDF) record in killing and maiming of thousands of Palestinians who live under illegal Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, the comparison with Pinochet is not out of line.
I happen to be Jewish. So don't label this anti-semitism. My voice is critical of Israel's policies, pure and simple.
Dr Judith Haiven
Chair, Department of Management
Saint Mary's University
Halifax, NS
Dear Mr. James and Mr. Light:
I regret having to write this letter. It pains me to think that Harvard Business School, and by extension the university of which I am otherwise proud to be a part, is guilty of hosting a figure such as Lt. General Dan Halutz--one of the main architects of the Israeli military's vicious and utterly disproportionate attack on Lebanon in the summer of 2006.
I remember following the news in despair as Lebanon burned, and thousands of civilian lives were offered up in sacrifice to the political ambitions of Israel's civilian and military leadership. I knew all along that the officials responsible were never likely to stand trial in the Hague or otherwise be punished for their crimes. Never did I dream, however, that one of my own university's graduate schools would reward someone such as Halutz for his amply demonstrated contempt for human life.
There is always the old excuse that "excesses" of one sort or another are inevitable on both sides of every war. Yet in this particular conflict such excesses were a core part of the war strategy devised by Halutz and others: to terrorize the Lebanese civilian population into renouncing its support for Hizballah. No matter what Hizballah's leaders may have done to provoke the conflict, it is hard to see how their various acts of asymmetric warfare could possibly justify the massive and deadly assault by Israel's war machine on civilian targets throughout Lebanon. (If you doubt that the Israeli bombing campaign deliberately targeted civilian populations and infrastructure, in defiance of international laws of war, I suggest you consult the Amnesty International report of August 23, 2006, entitled Deliberate Destruction or 'Collateral Damage'? Israeli Attacks on Civilian Infrastructure.)
To be sure, not only Israeli officials deserve to be held to account for their misdeeds. I would not wish to see the leaders responsible for the 1982 Hama massacre in Syria, or the slaughter of Bosnian Muslims in the 1990s, not to mention countless other atrocities throughout the world, sullying Harvard's campus either. I do not see Hasan Nasrallah or other Hizballah leaders rounding out their resumes at Harvard Business School--nor do I imagine that HBS would ever consider accepting them if they were to apply. Yet for some reason a barbarian such as Halutz is welcomed with open arms.
Halutz's presence at HBS exemplifies a larger pattern, not just at Harvard but throughout the American body politic, in which the high officials of certain countries-- principally the United States and Israel--are routinely treated as if they were exempt from accepted standards of morality and are even rewarded for acts regarded as criminal by the rest of the world. In the absence of an effective international justice system that can prosecute such leaders, the legalistic principle of "innocent before proven guilty" ceases to be a formula for justice and becomes an excuse for tolerating the intolerable. In such a situation, the institutions of civil society must accept their responsibility to enforce a minimum standard of human decency, insofar as they can.
Of course, it is not in Harvard's power to mete out punishment for crimes against humanity in the manner they deserve. Nonetheless, it is well within the ability of the university and its graduate schools to show well-known perpetrators of such crimes that there are at least some consequences for their actions. The fact that Dan Halutz will be able to flaunt his connection with Harvard for the rest of his repulsive career not only reflects poorly on the business school, but is a stain upon the entire Harvard community. As a member of that community, I devoutly hope that the leadership of HBS will think twice before it visits such a disgrace on us again.
Respectfully yours,
Garner Gollatz
Ph.D. candidate
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Harvard University
To whom it may concerns,
Harvard University built a legacy throughout its history for producing statesmen and leaders who contributed towards world peace and the advancement of our human society. General Halutz contribution to our humanity was more than 2 million cluster bombs that continue to kill
and maim thousands of innocent civilians in Lebanon as I write you this letter. The war criminal Halutz admitted last year that the use of the cluster bombs was wrong but that does not bring the dead children back and he was not held accountable for his crimes. The only thing that Halutz will contribute to Harvard is disgrace and humiliation for admitting a war criminal to its classrooms.
Harvard is home of the greats and it should remain so. Kick Halutz OUT
Riad Elsolh Hamad
Austin, Texas
Harvard parent 2003
Dear Mr. Bok, Mr. Light, and Mr. James:
Please accept this brief letter, sent with due respect for the complexity of your positions and anticipation of your understanding. I am sure you are aware of the current international campaign to publicize the presence of Dan Halutz and other proven human rights violators and war criminals at Harvard University, enjoying its esteem, resources, and facilities. As a former teacher at Harvard [Social Studies 1997-2002] and current scholar at Amherst College, I feel compelled in the name of our shared calling as educators concerned to protect the just conditions of human flourishing to urge you to reconsider the university policy that would permit such people to benefit from your reputation and hard work. Naturally, I would write with equal animation against any person from any country with such a record endangering the reputation of Harvard.
For more information about Halutz as well as other human rights abusers who have padded their resumes at Harvard, visit http://harvardwarcriminals.blogspot.com
Thank you,
Sayres Rudy
Visiting Professor
Amherst College
Dear Mr. James,
I recently returned from a visit to Lebanon where I saw first hand the tremendous damage inflicted by the Israeli air force last summer. Having seen the demolished villages, the bombed bridges and roads, and the fields full of cluster bombs, I was appalled to learn that the man responsible for the destruction of a country is now enrolled in your executive training program. When did the university become a haven for war criminals?
I urge you to take immediate steps to salvage Harvard's reputation and close your doors to such notorious human rights abusers.
Sincerely,
Dr. Nancy Uhlar Murray
Harvard University '67
I have learnt that Harvard University has lent its vast prestige to Dan Halutz, who was responsible for the deaths of approximately 1400 Lebanese civilians and for the deliberate destruction of swathes of Lebanon's infrastructure, as well as the deliberate pollution of the Lebanese coastline by the bombing of an oil refinery, by accepting him on a prestigious course.
I am surprised that Harvard should be so careless of its reputation and would ask you to read the dossier on Halutz's activities at http://harvardwarcriminals.blogspot.com/2007/05/dan-halutz.html which gives full details of what he is responsible for. Perhaps you might then reconsider your misguided hospitality towards him.
Yours sincerely,
Sophie Richmond
