'Shameful': Student Harassed by Harvard Professor's Wife over Palestinian Keffiyeh
Jason Furman’s wife Eve Gerber was filmed marching after the unidentified student in footage viewed more than 19 million times since being posted late Tuesday.
“Hi camera,” Gerber says, making clear she knew she was being filmed as she ranted about “people who wanted to murder you.”
“Thank you for walking through neighborhoods and making families feel unsafe with your terrorist scarf,” says Gerber, a mother of three and US editor of Five Books.
The flummoxed-sounding student replies, “Palestinians felt pretty unsafe when Israelis occupied their country.”
“I’m glad you’re so proud of the slaughtering of civilians,” Gerber says, to which the student retorts: “I’m not.”
It happened Oct. 14, a week after Hamas attacked the occupied territories, but went viral when posted Tuesday by the Sparrow Project, which describes itself as a “grassroots public interest newswire.”
'Absolutely no excuse'
Furman, a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School, privately apologized to the student in an Oct. 20 text exchange obtained by The Harvard Crimson, the student paper.
He told a person claiming to represent the student being harangued that there is “absolutely no excuse” for his wife’s actions.
“I’m sorry. No one should have to go through what your friend has gone through,” wrote the leading economist who served in Obama’s cabinet.
Gerber also apologized Wednesday, after the video of her rant started going viral.
She claimed that she had “overheard chants I found disturbing at a rally near my home” and then “spoke with a person on my block who I thought had come from that event.”
“When the political argument escalated, I used indefensible words. I was wrong to confront someone based on their dress… …and to use divisive, accusatory language,” Gerber conceded.
“In the two months since this video, I’ve tried to learn more and take reparative action. I will continue to do so. Hate and inhumanity in any form are abhorrent to me. I deeply regret what I said and did,” she added.
Rep. Ilhan Omar slams 'shameful' action
Still, Gerber faced widespread condemnation, including from members of Congress.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) called Gerber’s attack “shameful and disgusting” while sharing the 26-second clip.
“People in our country have a right to wear whatever scarfs they want to wear and people following them and making them uncomfortable is just wrong and discriminatory,” she wrote on X.
“Palestinians exist and need us to fight for their liberation,” she added.
