Harvard Breaks Hiring Freeze for yet Another Boycott-Israel Professor

New “Modern Middle East” teacher posted photos of protest “against the occupation Massacres in #Gaza.”

A screenshot from the social media feed of Harvard’s new Ford Foundation Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Adam Mestyan.

Harvard University, whose response to the Hamas-led terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, 2023 spawned lawsuits and federal investigations over antisemitism, is launching a new course this spring titled “Empire and Sovereignty in the Modern Middle East.”

The teacher?

In 2014 he signed a petition backing a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. “We call on our colleagues in Middle East Studies to boycott Israeli academic institutions, and we pledge not to collaborate on projects and events involving Israeli academic institutions, not to teach at or to attend conferences and other events at such institutions, and not to publish in academic journals based in Israel,” the petition says. It demanded that Israel “End its siege of Gaza, its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967, and dismantle the settlements and the walls” and “promote the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties.”

In May 2024, on social media, he approvingly posted a link to a CNN segment denouncing Israel for “genocide.” The segment also denounced “the use of the term antisemitism to attack those who criticize Israeli policies.”

In August 2024, on social media, he approvingly posted a link from Palestine TV with photos of what was described as “A demonstration in Hungary against the occupation Massacres in #Gaza.”

In September 2025, he posted on social media that he donated to a fundraiser for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. The Israeli government says Hamas has “systematically infiltrated” UNRWA “for terrorist purposes,” that at least 1,462 UNRWA employees in Gaza are members of Hamas or other designated terrorist organizations and that “UNRWA employees actively participated in the October 7th attacks on Israel.” The UNRWA USA committee paused funding after the Biden administration did and said it resumed it after UNRWA “implemented further operational risk mitigation measures” and on the basis of the “moral case” for “saving refugee lives.”