Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative Launches New Program on Israel

Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative announced last week the launch of a new Israel Program, expanding the center’s research, teaching, and engagement on Israel within its regional and global context.

In a letter announcing the program, Middle East Initiative Faculty Chair Tarek E. Masoud wrote that interest in Israel has intensified “after Hamas’ terrorist attacks of October 7th, 2023 and Israel’s subsequent military campaigns, and particularly the devastating war in Gaza.”

The program will be led by Barak Sella, a senior research fellow at the initiative and a Kennedy School graduate who previously served as executive director of the Reut Institute, an Israeli policy nonprofit. Masoud wrote that Sella has “long been a leading voice on U.S.-Israel relations and global Jewish affairs.”

The program will also draw on existing initiative scholars, including senior fellow Edward P. Djerejian, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Syria, and Kennedy School professor Lotem Bassan-Nygate.

A central piece of the program is the Shared Society Lab, which will be led by senior research fellow Dana Schleifer, another HKS graduate who previously served as chief innovation officer for the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipal government. According to Masoud’s announcement, the lab will focus on strengthening municipal institutions and building partnerships between Israel’s Jewish and Palestinian citizens.

The Israel Program will also introduce a new course, DPI-635: “Arguing Israel-Palestine,” and will launch an Israeli Research Fellowship beginning in the 2026-2027 academic year that will bring Israeli scholars and practitioners to the initiative for short-term residencies with other scholars from the region, as well as Harvard students and faculty.

Masoud wrote that these initiatives will foster the “rigorous, open inquiry and civil, constructive debate that are the hallmarks of the Middle East Initiative.”

In an interview, Masoud said the Israel Program is, for now, a modestly resourced effort.

“We’re able to attract some modest financial support for it, but very modest,” Masoud said. “Just as with any other program at the Middle East Initiative, we have to try to attract resources from foundations or from donors that Harvard has relationships with.”

Masoud said he has deliberately avoided pressing Kennedy School leadership for money at a time when the school’s finances are strained by the Trump administration’s attacks against the University.

“The University as a whole, and the Kennedy School in particular, are in some serious financial straits now as a result of the Trump administration’s attacks on the university — attacks that I think are frankly groundless,” Masoud said. “So I am not going to University leaders’ hat in hand and saying, ‘You know, your funds are very strained, I need some of them.’ All I can ask for is moral support, and the university has been very generous with it.”

Masoud also pushed back on the idea that the program amounts to taking a side in the Israel-Palestine conflict, saying the initiative does not advocate for any government.

“None of our programs advocate for countries,” Masoud said. “My view is Israel is a normal country — by normal country I mean it’s not different from Uruguay or Chad in terms of how we should treat it, and that means we have no problem giving a country kudos when it does something right and criticism when it does something wrong. Same here.”

The initiative, which is housed in Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, launched a similar country-focused effort last year. In December, it created the Syria Transition Lab, a year after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Masoud said the Israel Program has received a mixed but muted response since its announcement.

“There are definitely some expressions of concern from a variety of sides, but nothing out of the ordinary,” Masoud said. “I think in part it’s because people trust the program and are taking a wait and see attitude.”

The launch extends Masoud’s yearslong efforts to position MEI as a venue for dialogue on Israel and the Middle East. Since February 2024, Masoud has run the Middle East Dialogues, a speaker series showcasing varied perspectives on the region’s affairs. The series has featured figures ranging from former Trump adviser Jared C. Kushner ’03 to Arab American University associate professor Dalal Saeb Iriqat.

Iriqat’s invitation to campus in 2024 sparked backlash from pro-Israel activist over her past posts on X describing the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel as a “normal struggle for 4 #Freedom.” The Kenney School responded with a statement saying then-Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf found Iriqat’s comment “abhorrent” and that an invitation to speak did not signal endorsement of Iriqat’s views.

“I wrote to every reporter who was writing a story accusing Harvard of platforming Hamas,” Masoud said, referring to the controversy. “I said, it’s not Harvard, it’s Tarek Masoud. I’m happy to talk to you if you want to understand what I’m doing.”

The new program also arrives just over a year after Harvard announced a pair of new academic partnerships with Israeli institutions — a study abroad program with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and a postdoctoral fellowship for Israeli researchers at Harvard Medical School. Harvard had agreed to partner with an Israeli university as part of a January 2025 settlement with two groups alleging it had slow-walked its response to campus antisemitism.

A separate antisemitism lawsuit brought against Harvard by the Department of Justice was dismissed in August, and the department appealed the ruling to the First Circuit Court of Appeals later that month.

Masoud wrote that updates on the Israel Program’s work will be posted to MEI’s website as the initiative develops.

—Staff writer Jen L. Phan can be reached at [email protected] and Signal at jenphan.74. Follow her on X at @jenllphan.

—Staff writer Mirei S. Saneyoshi can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @mireisaneyoshi.