Haverford Professor Guangtian Ha, Who Called Zionists Nazis, Arrested Over Antisemitic Online Harassment
Haverford College says religion professor Guangtian Ha was arrested and charged with online harassment and intimidation on October 6. He has been placed on leave and barred from campus.
Haverford College, the liberal arts college outside Philadelphia, announced on October 6 that religion professor Guangtian Ha had been arrested and charged with online harassment and intimidation in a case the college described as antisemitic. He has been placed on administrative leave and banned from campus while the criminal case proceeds.
The arrest of Guangtian Ha
College president Wendy Raymond said in a message to the campus that Ha was arrested and charged earlier that day, and thanked the FBI, Haverford Township Police and campus safety staff for their work on the investigation. She said a college representative had contacted the people targeted and condemned harassment based on identity.
The college did not name the victims, specify whether they were students, or publish the charging documents. Ha had already been on sabbatical this academic year and was not teaching.
A record that reached Congress
Ha's statements about Israel were already notorious. At a House hearing on campus antisemitism in May 2025, Representative Virginia Foxx read into the record posts attributed to him from August 2024 that called for Israel to be dismantled, equated Zionism with Nazism and described Zionists as racists. Another post urged people to stop talking to Zionists and compared reluctant Zionists to reluctant Nazis.
Representative Randy Fine pressed Raymond on how a professor who refused to engage with Zionists could teach Jewish students fairly. Raymond called the statements repugnant and said she did not defend them, but confirmed that Ha remained employed. He stayed on the faculty for another seventeen months.
The college's announcement did not say whether those posts are connected to the new charges.
Why Haverford was already under scrutiny
Haverford was one of several smaller colleges called before Congress after Jewish students described a hostile climate following October 7. Raymond faced questions about the college's handling of complaints and its treatment of Zionist students, and the hearing documented a gap between the college's stated values and the conduct it tolerated on its faculty.
The arrest is the first time that record has led to a criminal case.
What happens next
The charges have not been detailed publicly, and Ha has not responded. A conviction would depend on evidence the college has not released. What the announcement does establish is that a professor whose anti Zionist rhetoric was defended as free expression in 2025 is now accused of a crime, and that his college has finally removed him from campus.
