More than a year after Harvard University’s leaders were ripped for their initial silence and then statement on the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack, the public is now learning that university heads intentionally removed language that explicitly condemned the terror group.

The Harvard leaders in the days after the terrorist attack cut the word “violent” and chose to not acknowledge the Israeli hostages in the university’s official statement, according to a new Congressional report.

“The official statement’s troubling nature was no accident, but the result of intentional choices by Harvard’s most senior leaders to not condemn Hamas, to cut language regarding captured Israeli hostages and calling Hamas’ attack ‘violent,’ and to include equivocal language on the impacts of war in Gaza,” reads the report from the House Committee on Education and Workforce.

“These choices were made despite the fact that Israeli and other Jewish Harvard students were personally impacted by the attack,” the Republican-led committee added.

Following months of investigations into campus antisemitism, the House Committee on Education and Workforce recently released its findings.

The report, according to the committee, details widespread failures by university administrators in the enforcement of their policies when conduct violations occurred and in supporting their Jewish campus communities.

“For over a year, the American people have watched antisemitic mobs rule over so-called elite universities, but what was happening behind the scenes is arguably worse,” Chairwoman Virginia Foxx said in a statement.

“While Jewish students displayed incredible courage and a refusal to cave to the harassment, university administrators, faculty, and staff were cowards who fully capitulated to the mob and failed the students they were supposed to serve,” the congresswoman added.

On the night of Oct. 9, after much criticism, Harvard’s leaders released a statement — saying they were “heartbroken by the death and destruction unleashed by the attack by Hamas that targeted citizens in Israel this weekend, and by the war in Israel and Gaza now under way.” The leaders received significant criticism for their equivocal approach to Hamas’ terrorism and Israel’s resulting military response, as well as for its failure to condemn the terrorist attack.

Harvard’s most senior administrators had discussed whether to denounce Hamas’ terrorism in the draft statement and decided not to do so, according to the new report.

“The fact that Harvard’s top leaders intentionally declined to condemn Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel, which claimed the lives of approximately 1,200 innocent people, or the student organizations’ statement blaming Israel for the attack demonstrates the moral rot that has infected at the administrative heart of the University in much of postsecondary education,” the report reads.

Then-Harvard Law School Dean John Manning (now provost) objected to language in an earlier draft of the Oct. 9 statement that referenced the impact of the hostages’ kidnapping upon the Harvard community.

“In the wake of the horrific attack, Manning suggested the language regarding hostages should be cut given the absence of equivalent language regarding the possibility of Palestinians being harmed,” the report reads. “Numerous Harvard deans concurred with Manning.”

“In light of this knowledge, Harvard’s deans’ decision to remove language acknowledging the kidnapping of hostages was a callous choice that denied sympathy and condolences to members of the Harvard community personally impacted by the attack,” the committee added. “For many in Harvard’s Jewish community, the unsatisfactory nature of Harvard’s official statement added insult to injury.”

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Harvard leaders issued further statements after their Oct. 9 statement, and acknowledged the concerns regarding that statement.

Then-President Claudine Gay said in a statement on Oct. 10, “As the events of recent days continue to reverberate, let there be no doubt that I condemn the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas. Such inhumanity is abhorrent, whatever one’s individual views of the origins of longstanding conflicts in the region.”

Then-Provost/Now President Alan Garber later said in a Crimson interview, “I certainly have regrets about the first statement. Our goal is to ensure that our community is safe, secure, and feels well supported — and that first statement did not succeed in that regard.”

Harvard continues to cooperate with the Congressional committee’s investigations, offering a significant amount of information across 35 submissions of materials totaling more than 60,000 pages.

“Harvard is steadfast in our efforts to create a safe, inclusive environment where students can pursue their academic and personal interests free from harassment and discrimination,” a Harvard spokesperson said in a statement. “Antisemitism has no place on our campus, and across the university we have intensified our efforts to listen to, learn from, support, and uplift our Jewish community, affirming their vital place at Harvard.

“At the same time, the university has taken steps to strengthen and clarify rules for use of campus spaces and disciplinary policies and procedures, as well as engage our community around civil dialogue to bridge divides,” the spokesperson added. “This work is ongoing, and Harvard is fully committed to it and confident we are moving in the right direction.”