Jeff Jacoby recaps the history of the recently closed Arab League hate locus, the Zayed Centre for Coordination and Followup, and calls on Harvard to return the filthy money donated by the Centre’s founder, Sheikh Zayed: Harvard must give back tainted money. (Hat tip: Melissa M.)

In March, [Harvard student Rachel] Fish took her evidence to the divinity school’s dean, William Graham, and asked that Zayed’s money be returned. Her argument was simple: Harvard would never accept money from a Ku Klux Klan financier. The hate funded by the sheik is no less abhorrent.

Graham, who had first heard about the Zayed Center’s anti-Semitic and anti-American output in January, told Fish he would have an independent researcher look into the issue. He promised to get back to her within six weeks.

Six weeks passed. Graham said nothing. Nor did most of the divinity school faculty — a faculty that normally prides itself on its social conscience and its commitment to human rights. An online petition urging the university to decline Zayed’s money drew thousands of signatures. But the administration seemed in no hurry to move.

Fish refused to give up. With the help of the David Project, she contacted the media. By the end of May, Harvard’s tainted money was drawing attention, and not just in Boston: It was covered on CBS and NPR, in The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, on scores of websites and on talk shows.

Last month, Fish’s persistence finally paid off — sort of. The United Arab Emirates, stung by the bad publicity, announced that the Zayed Center would be shut down. In time it may resurface under a different name, but for now it is out of business, its websites are closed, and its anti-Semitic output has been turned off. Because one young person refused to back away from a fight, the plug has been pulled on a leading purveyor of hatred.

Oh, and Harvard? It announced on Friday that it would need another year to decide what to do about Sheik Zayed’s money. Rachel Fish’s work isn’t finished.