The Harvard Kennedy School has restored its fellowship offer to Kenneth Roth, the former director of Human Rights Watch, after Harvard was blasted for rescinding the offer over Roth’s and Human Rights Watch’s criticism of Israeli human rights abuses. Kenneth Roth appeared on Democracy Now! earlier this month to warn against the chilling effect of Harvard’s initial decision.
Kenneth Roth: “This is a very serious problem. I mean, it’s not just a problem for me personally. This is not, you know, impeding my career in a significant way. But I think about, you know, first of all, the younger academics, who don’t have the visibility that I do, who are going to take from this lesson the view that if you touch Israel, if you criticize Israel, that can be a career-killing move. You’ll get canceled. And that’s a disastrous signal to send.”