Top US Law Firm Revokes Job Offers To Harvard, Columbia Students Over Anti-Israel Letter

A top US law firm has rescinded job offers for three Harvard and Columbia students after they expressed support for Palestine and blamed Israel for the Hamas attacks. According to a BBC report, Davis Polk & Wardwell said the views "are in direct contravention of our firm's value system". It added that student leaders who signed onto the statements are "no longer welcome in our firm".

''These statements are simply contrary to our firm's values and we thus concluded that rescinding these offers was appropriate in upholding our responsibility to provide a safe and inclusive work environment for all Davis Polk employees,'' said the email, signed by Neil Barr, NBC reported.

''At this time, we remain in dialogue with two of these students to ensure that any further colour being offered to us by these students is considered,'' the email added.

A Davis Polk representative later told The New York Times that it may still hire two of the three students after the individuals made a case that they did not personally authorize the letters.

Notably, Davis Polk & Wardwell employs around 1,000 attorneys and has annual revenues of $1.7 billion.

According to The Guardian, a letter signed by around 30 Harvard student organizations said the groups "hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence", adding that millions of Palestinians are forced to live in an "open-air prison" with no means of escaping retaliatory air strikes that have killed more than 1,000 and displaced many more as entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble by the Israeli military.

A separate statement released by Palestine solidarity groups at Columbia similarly blamed Israeli and Western governments, including the US, for the bloodshed. These governments ''fund and staunchly support Israeli aggression, apartheid, and settler-colonization,'' the Columbia students' statement reads.

Last week, Idan Ofer, an Israeli shipping tycoon with a multi-billion-dollar fortune, and his wife Batia stepped down from their roles as board members at Harvard's Kennedy School. Their resignation came in protest of what they perceived as the university's lukewarm response to the students' letter. 

Further, Wexner Foundation, a philanthropic organisation owned by Victoria's Secret billionaire Leslie Wexner and his wife Abigail, also cut ties with Harvard after the school failed to condemn the letter. 

Bill Ackman, the hedge fund billionaire and Harvard alumnus, has called for the students' names to be revealed so people can avoid ‘inadvertently' hiring them.