Tzipi Livni called 'smelly' at Harvard

A student asked the former FM “How is it that you are so smelly?... Very smelly, and I was wondering."

Tzipi Livni (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Tzipi Livni
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
At an event run by Harvard’s Program on Negotiation last Thursday, current Zionist Union MK and former foreign minister Tzipi Livni was confronted with an unusual, but nonetheless noxious question from a Harvard Law School student in attendance.
In a panel section of the event, co-sponsored by the Jewish Law Students Association and Harvard Hillel, the student asked Livni: “How is it that you are so smelly?"
When his pungent question only elicited curious looks, he clarified: "Oh, it's a question about the odor of Ms. Tzipi Livni, very smelly, and I was just wondering.”
Harking back to the old anti-Semitic trope of the "smelly Jew" was roundly condemned in the Harvard Law Record on Tuesday.
"Anti-Semitism is still very real today, and it just showed itself in our community at Harvard Law School," read the editorial. "The idea that Jews can be identified by a malodor is patently offensive and stereotypes Jews as an 'other' which incites further acts of discrimination."
The video coverage for the Q&A section of the event has not been released, but the unnamed student is thought to be the president of a student organization on campus.