Top U.S. law firm Davis Polk has reportedly rescinded job offers to three law students at Harvard and Columbia universities after the students were linked to public statements that blamed Israel for the ongoing violence overseas with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The law firm’s managing partner, Neil Barr, announced the decision Tuesday in an internal email, which was authenticated by a Davis Polk representative to NBC News.
“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,” read the email, which did not identify the students or specify which statements they purportedly signed.
A representative with the law firm did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment on Wednesday.
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, which were greenlit by student organizations.
More than 30 student groups at Harvard co-signed a statement last week that argued the Israeli regime is “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” A separate statement released by Palestine solidarity groups at Columbia similarly blamed Israeli and Western governments, including the U.S., for the bloodshed.
These governments “fund and staunchly support Israeli aggression, apartheid and settler-colonization,” the Columbia students’ statement reads.
“If every political avenue available to Palestinians is blocked, we should not be surprised when resistance and violence break out,” the statement continues. “The international community is quick to affirm Israel’s right to protect itself but does not extend this same right to Palestinians.”
The current outbreak of violence in the region erupted on Oct. 7, when Hamas militants attacked Israel in a siege that killed more than 1,300 people. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 1,500 people in Gaza, and more than a million Palestinians, about half the population of Gaza, have fled their homes.
Some students at the Ivy League schools have distanced themselves or withdrawn their endorsements from the statements after facing public backlash. At least one student group has also released a statement that directly condemns the actions of Hamas against Israeli and Jewish civilians.
Another student group said in a statement that it had not consulted all of its members before signing on to the earlier statement criticizing Israel, and that it was retracting its support.
Last week, a truck drove near Harvard’s campus displaying names and photos of students affiliated with organizations that signed the statements there, accusing them of antisemitism.
Several CEOs also called for Harvard to publicly identify all students who are members of the school organizations that issued the statements, so the companies can decline to hire them.