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Updated March 27, 2025, at 7:55 p.m.

The Harvard School of Public Health suspended its research partnership with Birzeit University in the West Bank, bowing to longstanding calls to sever the collaboration.

HSPH launched an internal review into Harvard’s François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights — a University-wide center housed at HSPH — late last summer. After a memorandum of understanding between the FXB Center and Birzeit expired in recent months, Harvard decided not to renew the agreement, according to HSPH spokesperson Stephanie Simon.

According to Simon, Harvard chose to hit pause on the University’s institutional ties to Birzeit as part of the investigation into the FXB Center — and will decide whether to issue a permanent halt when the probe finishes this spring.

HSPH Dean Andrea A. Baccarelli told the Harvard Gazette, a University-run publication, on Wednesday that the internal review was intended to evaluate the “current status and future potential” of the partnership with Birzeit.

“This allows the panel to objectively evaluate partnerships and collaborations and ensure the center exemplifies academic excellence in alignment with our mission,” he said.

Simon, the HSPH spokesperson, said the FXB Center review came as part of the school’s regular practice of conducting periodic reviews of its centers. She wrote in a statement that reviews had been paused or disrupted in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic, but Baccarelli restarted them after he took office in January 2024. The FXB Center, she wrote, “was one of the first up in the queue.”

As soon as he took office, Dean Baccarelli made it a priority to restart the review process, as part of his commitment to strengthen our research and academic excellence. The FXB Center was one of the first up in the queue.

Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Harvard’s partnership with the largest university in the West Bank has faced heightened scrutiny, as critics have sought to tie — without evidence — the Birzeit administration to Hamas. The university’s student government elected candidates running with a Hamas-affiliated bloc in their election last spring.

In July, Rep. Elise M. Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and 27 other Republicans penned a letter to Harvard’s top brass calling on the University to “immediately end” its relationship with Birzeit after the Harvard task force to address antisemitism did not recommend dissolving the partnership.

Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers urged the University to “immediately dissolve” the partnership in a post on X five days later.

Under the terms of the pause, Harvard will no longer have an official institutional relationship with Birzeit — but the FXB Center’s Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights, which often collaborates with scholars at Birzeit, will continue to run without interruption, according to Simon.

Harvard also will not co-sponsor the Palestine Social Medicine Course at Birzeit this year, according to Simon, who cited safety concerns of having Harvard students study in the West Bank. Last year, the program relocated to Jordan in the wake of instability in the West Bank following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

Simon said that senior administrators at the School of Public Health prepared a document last summer summarizing the programming and research supported by the partnership, as well as its funding and finances.

That document will be delivered to a team of three reviewers — composed of two internal Harvard affiliates and one researcher from another university — who were appointed by Provost John F. Manning ’82.

Later this spring, the internal review group will issue a final recommendation on the scope of Harvard’s partnership with Birzeit.

Baccarelli said that the review panel would ensure that the FXB Center was meeting “the highest standards of excellence expected of a University-wide center at Harvard.”

“The charge to the review panel is to rigorously evaluate the FXB Center’s current status and future potential, offering candid, forthright, and thorough feedback, including any shortcomings or areas of concern,” he said.

Clarification: March 27, 2025

This article has been updated to clarify that the Harvard School of Public Health regularly conducts reviews into all its centers.

Correction: March 27, 2025

Due to incorrect information provided by a Harvard School of Public Health spokesperson, a previous version of this article incorrectly stated that HSPH administrators’ report on the FXB Center had already been shared with a team of reviewers. In fact, the report has not yet been sent to the review panel.

—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.

—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.