'I left one conflict zone to enter another': Harvard's Jewish foreign students on Trump row

If President Donald Trump says he's punishing Harvard University to protect Jewish students, not everybody is convinced.

More than 2,000 Harvard students identify as Jewish, and for some of those from abroad, Trump's rhetoric has stirred fear and uncertainty.

"I thought when I left Israel I was leaving a conflict zone," PhD student Genia, 41, tells me.

It's foreign students like her that fear becoming collateral damage in Trump's crackdown on some of America's most elite universities.

After last week trying to strip Harvard of its ability to enrol international students, the Trump istration suffered a legal blow on Thursday when a judge indicated she would block the move while the case plays out in court.

But the ruling is unlikely to deescalate the conflict between Trump and Harvard, an institution he accuses of being too left-wing and failing to combat antisemitism when pro-Palestinian protests have unfolded on campuses.

"It's been hard. We've had guest speakers here saying my heritage and sacred texts should be decolonised, and questioning my existence" says Genia, who is studying psychology.

She is halfway through her studies which focus on language acquisition in babies who are blind. She worries being sent back to Israel if the foreign ban prevails.

"I do think that it is very important to learn to be uncomfortable and offended. But I think it should be applied to both sides... it's not been balanced. "

"I've had two years of dealing with massive amounts of campus hostility and now we get this mayhem... it's not making things better."

In a small backdown from its attempt to end the university's international student program, the government has given Harvard 30 days to prove it meets the requirements of enrolling foreign students.

If the measure is ultimately allowed, it could deliver a devastating blow to the university, where more than a quarter of students are from overseas. There are no exceptions for Israelis or other international Jewish students.

An order ostensibly designed to protect Jewish students like Genia appears to have put those from abroad in peril. It's led to accusations that President Trump has politicised antisemitism.

Genia says: "I think that it is very important that we recognise that there is a distinction between what we want and what the US government probably wants."

The university's president insists Harvard has taken major steps to tackle all forms of hatred, including antisemitism. Alan Garber says the cuts the Trump istration is imposing on the institution will "hurt" the country, not just Harvard, because academics were conducting research deemed "high-priority" by the government.

Nitsan Machlis, 27, is about to graduate. Her family is here to see her walk the stage in her cap and gown. She is upbeat but that feeling had been missing for a while.

"For the first time in a long time, I feel very proud to be a student at Harvard. Harvard has been under immense pressure by the Trump istration, and the institution has shown it is making decisions with integrity to defend its academic freedom and to not bow down to the power grab," she says.

"The university still has a lot to prove and do when it comes to tackling antisemitism" she adds, "but I'm proud with what President Garber is saying and doing."

Another Israeli at Harvard - who works as a research fellow – is concerned about the Trump istration's approach. The 38-year-old didn't want to be identified as she weighs up her future..

"I see that Harvard is really trying to address the problems... but you cannot change a culture and problems. These are not Harvard specific problems, and they're not even problems of the American elite. These are big problems in the world and it does not take a week, or a day, to solve them."

She draws parallels with her home country and adopted country

"Israelis have been experiencing democratic backsliding in a very intense way and I think we should be the first to recognise what's going on here in the US."

Harvard Professor Steven Levitsky goes further. He has spent decades studying authoritarian governments and believes that President Trump is using antisemitism as a cover to bring elite education under his control.

"We're the biggest fish. We're the most prominent, most prestigious, and also the best university in the country. So if you want a single representative of higher education to take a whack at, Harvard is the obvious target," he tells me.

"If the Trump istration is able to bully Harvard into acquiescence, then it knows that no other university will be able to stand up to it."

Reflecting on experiencing antisemitism throughout his life, he says: "I've never seen or experienced antisemitism here at Harvard. And so the kind of the notion that we have a serious problem that requires federal intervention, as a Jew who's lived here for 25 years, I can tell you it's laughable."

But this ongoing battle threatens to leave Harvard in a different place even if the school is successful in its fight. Many international students say they're already looking to build their academic future elsewhere, while others who have graduated say they plan to take their skills to countries outside of America.

Additional reporting by Eva Artesona