The presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania testified before a US House of Representatives committee last Tuesday about the state of antisemitism on their campuses. It did not go well for them.

Representative Elise Stefanik asked the presidents whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violated the schools’ codes of conduct or constituted “bullying or harassment”. None of them could answer with a yes. MIT’s Sally Kornbluth said it could be, “if targeted at individuals, not making public statements”. Penn’s Elizabeth Magill called it “a context-dependent decision”. Harvard’s Claudine Gay agreed with Magill and added that it depended on whether “it crosses into conduct”.