Bill Ackman has doubled down on his push to have companies refuse employment opportunities to the Harvard students who signed a letter blaming Israel for Hamas’ violent attack that killed more than 1,200 people over the weekend.
The hedge fund billionaire who founded Pershing Square Capital Management held his ground after a Harvard law student slammed him for “harassment” in response to a social media post on X in which he demanded a list of the signatories of the controversial letter.
“If you were managing a business, would you hire someone who blamed the despicable violent acts of a terrorist group on the victims?” Ackman wrote on X early Thursday. “I don’t think so.”
“Would you hire someone who was a member of a school club who issued a statement blaming lynchings by the KKK on their victims?” Ackman wrote. “I don’t think so.”
“It is not harassment to seek to understand the character of the candidates that you are considering for employment,” Ackman added.
At least a dozen business executives endorsed Ackman’s call for Harvard to publish lists bearing the names of the members of the 34 groups that initially attached their names to the letter that was circulated over the weekend.
Still, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers — a Harvard alum who said he was “sickened” by his alma mater’s failure to explicitly condemn Hamas in the wake of the student groups’ letter — told Bloomberg News that Ackman was “getting a bit carried away” in his push to list the names of the group members.
“This letter was issued six hours after the attacks,” Summers told Bloomberg News. “Many in the groups had no idea that there was going to be a letter … Some I’m sure were naive and stupid.”
Jason Furman, an economist who worked in the Obama administration and who is a professor at Harvard, seconded Summers’ sentiment, saying that “two wrongs do not make a right.”
“Publishing lists of students and personal information under the headings ‘terrorist,’ ‘genocidal murderer’ and ‘anti semite’ is just wrong in any circumstance, and especially when many of the people named have nothing to do with the statement,” Furman wrote in a post on his X account.
The backlash prompted at least four of the groups to renounce their affiliation with the letter and remove their names.
Ackman’s response came hours after a “doxxing truck” drove around the campus of Harvard University with digital billboards that display the names and photos of students who allegedly signed the letter.
Mohini Tangri, a Harvard Law student, criticized Ackman’s call on Wednesday, insisting that the members of the student organizations “had no say in whether their orgs signed” the letter.
“Many weren’t even notified that their orgs were considering doing so,” Tangri, who separately wrote that she “unequivocally condemn[s] the horrific acts of violence … that Hamas committed this weekend,” argued in a post on X, adding: “No need for this level of harassment.”
Ackman shot down that argument in his tweet that offered “some advice for students.”
“If an organization of which you are a member puts out a public statement you disagree with, you have a few choices,” Ackman wrote on his X account.
“You can … stay silent and have the entire world conclude that you stand by the statement,” Ackman wrote.
The hedge fund mogul wrote that students can “convince the other members of the group to withdraw or otherwise modify the statement so that it can reflect the views of all members.”
“Or you can resign in protest,” Ackman wrote.
“Claiming that you had no involvement or knowledge of the statement, but remaining a member of the organization without it withdrawing the statement is perhaps the worst of the alternatives, as it appears to simply be an attempt to avoid accountability while continuing to be a member of the organization,” Ackman wrote.
He defended his demand for businesses to refuse to hire the participating students.
Ackman rejected claims that the calls to name the students made them feel “unsafe.”
“Ask yourself how unsafe it would feel in Israel beginning Saturday early morning and how unsafe it feels now?” the mogul wrote.
“Public statements made by organizations of which you are a member can have a material negative impact on your reputation,” Ackman wrote.
“I have learned from experience that the best time to fix a mistake is now.”