Local reverberations of the Israel-Hamas war have roiled the University of Pennsylvania. From funding strikes to hate speech, and graffiti to doxing, it’s been a complex, difficult time at the West Philly school.
One major repercussion has been the resignation of President Liz Magill on Dec. 9, less than a year and a half after she started the job.
Magill announced she was stepping down following intense criticism of her congressional testimony on how the Ivy League school handles anti-Israel protests and antisemitic incidents. She’ll stay on until a new president is selected and will remain a professor at Penn’s law school.
Scott Bok, chair of the board of trustees, also quit and was succeeded by interim chair Julie Platt.
Their departures are rooted in a series of events that began with criticism of Penn’s handling of a Palestinian literary festival in September.
At its base, the disagreement has been over how to differentiate between valid political stances and outright antisemitism — and how administrators with the power to shut down events interpret that distinction.
After the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, university trustees, donors and others criticized the school for not issuing a condemnatory statement quickly enough, and the campus has continued to be roiled by pro-Israel and pro-Palestine protests, a dispute over the showing of a film critical of Israel, and other controversies.
Penn has also been dogged by complaints about how it handles free expression by supporters of Palestine and critics of Israel, as have administrators at Harvard, Columbia, and other universities. Harvard’s president likewise came under pressure to resign after testifying before Congress.
What happened at the congressional hearing?
The university presidents went before a U.S. House committee on Dec. 5 planning to explain how they were responding to antisemitism on campus.
Republican legislators used the hearing as an opportunity to criticize the schools for allegedly fostering a broader ideological framework that allowed antisemitism to grow.
In one exchange, New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik asked Magill to respond “yes or no” if calling for the “genocide of Jews” violated Penn’s rules or code of conduct.
Magill: “If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment. Yes.”
Stefanik: “I am asking, specifically, calling for the genocide of Jews, does that constitute bullying or harassment?”
Magill: It’s a “context-dependent decision.”
Stefanik: “It’s a context-dependent decision — that’s your testimony today? Calling for the genocide of Jews is depending upon the context?”
Some observers said Magill and the other university presidents were not equipped to make judgements about when a statement tipped from valid political expression to hate speech, or were trying to give nuanced explanations of administrative processes rather than giving an opinion.
But Magill’s failure to respond by simply condemning calls for genocide led to outrage from politicians and others on both sides of the aisle.
“I thought her testimony under oath before Congress was shameful and unacceptable,” Gov. Shapiro told the Daily Pennsylvanian and other outlets. “[It] was an easy, one-word answer to the congresswoman’s question: ‘Yes.’ That’s it. It’s all that [needed] to be said.”
Magill, who is an attorney, put out a video saying she had mistakenly focused on the university’s free speech policies rather than the “evil” of calls for genocide.
But amid mounting criticism and threats from a donor to cancel a $100 million donation to the university, Magill announced her resignation.
Stefanik wrote, “One down, two to go,” on X/Twitter, referring to three university presidents who testified, and added, “This is only the beginning of addressing the pervasive rot of antisemitism that has destroyed the most ‘prestigious’ higher education institutions in America.”
What antisemitic incidents happened before Oct. 7?
Just before Rosh Hashanah, in late September, a spray-painted swastika was found in the spray room at the Weitzman School of Design.
That same week, Penn Hillel, the on-campus center for Jewish undergrads, was vandalized. The perpetrator also yelled “antisemitic obscenities,” including “F**k the Jews” and “They killed JC,” a student told The Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn’s diligent campus newspaper.
Penn Police found the individual on campus and concluded that the person — who has not been identified as a student — was “experiencing a crisis,” and transported them to a medical facility.
Penn Hillel supporters had been working to stop the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, set to occur at the university the following day. Campus law enforcement did not connect the two, but the dustup kicked off a heated conversation about what constitutes antisemitism on campus
What is Palestine Writes and why was it so controversial?
Palestine Writes first began virtually in 2020 as a celebration of Palestinian literary culture, a canon that unsurprisingly includes — but is hardly limited to — work critical of the state of Israel. The festival isn’t officially affiliated with Penn, but was allowed to hold events on campus for this year’s second edition. It had the support of Penn’s Near East Languages and Civilizations Department and its Middle East Center, along with many student groups.
Before the festival, Penn Hillel objected to the participation of some of the slated speakers, the most famous being Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, who has in the past sharply criticized Israel and used antisemitic slurs. Penn Hillel demanded that Penn President Liz Magill bar Waters from speaking.
She didn’t take that step, but her administration did release a statement distancing the university from the festival and discussing concerns about “many” of its speakers. That statement in turn prompted a critical response from students and faculty members with “deep concerns” about how Magill was representing the event.
How did that blow up into national news?
As far back as August, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and regional director of the Anti-Defamation League were in touch with Penn leadership, asking for a public statement “questioning the judgment of and distancing itself from the academic departments” who helped organize Palestine Writes.
After Magill issued her statement, festival organizers obtained and published the above correspondence along with a letter to Penn leadership by novelist and co-organizer Susan Abulhawa. Like other student groups and faculty, Abulhawa criticized Magill’s statement, saying it failed to distinguish between antisemitism and criticisms of Israel or defend Penn faculty and students.
“It is particularly galling and insulting — if not outright libelous — to suggest that we pose a threat to Jewish students on campus,” wrote Abulhawa.
The American Jewish Committee, a national nonprofit that advocates for American Jews who support Israel, also pointed to Philadelphia-based national news commentator Marc Lamont Hill’s involvement as a problem. They were joined by other national organizations in opposing Penn’s hosting of the festival throughout September.
In the end, Pink Floyd’s Waters was not allowed to physically attend; he spoke virtually instead. The festival was a widely attended celebration of culture and critique that occurred without incident.
Did donors actually cut off funding? Who called for Magill’s resignation?
All that happened before the Oct. 7 attack. When Penn, like many other institutions, issued a statement about the “horrific assault on Israel by Hamas that targeted civilians and the taking of hostages over the weekend,” it set off a firestorm.
Several alumni and trustees declared they would withdraw or stop significant donations to the university, including Estée Lauder billionaire Ronald Lauder (who had tried hard to get Palestine Writes canceled), “Law and Order” creator Dick Wolf, and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr.
Some said it was because the statement, which came out on Oct. 10, wasn’t issued quickly enough. Some said the school wasn’t being supportive enough of its Jewish students. Others were still upset about the handling of Palestine Writes. Multiple people wrote letters accusing the university of being insufficiently condemnatory of events in the world and on campus.
To date, dozens of donors have cut off their financial support, per the Daily Pennsylvanian, and one Board of Trustees member resigned.
Marc Rowan, chair of the Wharton School’s Board of Advisors and former trustee, made an additional push to have Magill and university board chair Scott Bok resign.
The push petered out when more than 50 past and present trustees reportedly agreed she should stay.
How many different groups have staged demonstrations on campus?
As donors made their feelings known with their words and their pocketbooks, physical demonstrations began to fill Penn’s campus. There were demonstrators of all ideologies — some supporting Israel, others calling for a ceasefire, and some mourning those killed due to the war.
Student groups involved in demonstrations include:
- Penn Against the Occupation
- Penn Hillel
- Penn Arab Student Society
- Penn’s Muslim Students’ Association
- Police Free Penn
- Penn Chavurah
Non-Penn related groups like Drexel’s Students for Justice in Palestine, Philly Palestine Coalition, and If Not Now Philly have also participated in on-campus events.
What kind of incidents on campus have people concerned?
Beyond the vandalization of Penn Hillel and the design school, a number of incidents have raised concerns for student safety on campus, along with acts that were not endangering but indicative of tensions around the Israel-Hamas war.
This is not a comprehensive rundown, but the list includes:
- Violent and death threats sent to students and faculty who participated in pro-Palestinian, pro-ceasefire events
- Antisemitic graffiti comparing Jews to Nazis painted next to the house of Alpha Epsilon Pi, a fraternity based on Jewish values (the incident is being investigated as a hate crime)
- Antisemitic messages threatening violence sent to Penn staff in early November, another incident being investigated as a hate crime. Law enforcement officers swept both Penn Hillel and Lauder College House, finding no threats to student safety.
- A Penn student arrested for allegedly stealing an Israeli flag from a Campus Apartments building.
Though no physical violence has taken place at a demonstration, in-person confrontations at war-related rallies have left many students of varying orientations deeply shaken.
Penn is one of seven schools that are involved in a U.S. Dept. of Education investigation into antisemitism and Islamophobia on college campuses. Magill testified in front of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce in response to the investigation.
How have faculty responded?
There have been two major open letters signed by Penn faculty.
The first was sent out on Oct. 24, with over 300 — largely from Wharton School of Business and the Perelman School of Medicine — signing onto a statement that expresses solidarity with Israel, while disavowing Islamophobia and antisemitism.
A second letter on Nov. 20 was signed by hundreds of professors from around the world, advocating for Penn students to be allowed to demonstrate on campus.
It also pushed for Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian students to see and feel the same support from Penn leadership as their Jewish peers, and called out “online death threats, libelous public petitions, and harassment and intimidation by both colleagues and the Penn Administration” that faculty, staff and students have been dealing with.
A few letters from smaller groups of academics have also come out.
Penn’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors released an Oct. 28 letter citing concerns about trustee influence and harassment, asserting that “our university leadership has intensified fear and animosity by associating antisemitism and terrorism with an overly broad range of academic programming and political speech.”
Penn’s Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies issued a brief statement shortly after Oct. 7, and later announced a new lecture series on Jewish life in American universities.
Outside of the university, the national Middle Eastern Studies Association released a letter to Magill and other administrators describing defamatory harassment that faculty members were facing and noting discrepancies they saw in Penn’s response.
After the administration tried to bar the screening of the film “Israelism,” the director of the Penn Middle East Center submitted his resignation.
How is Penn addressing the issue so far?
At the start of November, the university released “Penn’s Action Plan to Combat Antisemitism.”
The plan focuses on elevating safety at all student worship centers, inaugurates formal partnerships with the American Jewish Committee and a new student advisory group to fight antisemitism, and points to forthcoming educational efforts to ensure “antisemitism awareness” is an “integral part of our equity and inclusion programs.”
A new 20-person “University Task Force on Antisemitism” has the mission of engaging with the campus to understand the contours of antisemitism at Penn and find ways to address it. It’s due to file a report by Feb. 15, and wrap up its work by next May.
“Our Jewish community is afraid. Our Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian communities feel unseen and unheard,” said Magill, in a speech announcing the plan to university trustees. “I condemn the death threats and doxing that many at Penn are experiencing based only on their identity, their affiliations, or their views of the suffering in this war.”
There’s also a forthcoming conversation series from Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences, with a plan to host group discussions, symposiums, and public programs addressing the Israel-Hamas war and other issues pertaining to the region. As of this writing, no events have yet been scheduled.
Is Penn’s action plan starting at the right place?
Penn’s action plan will work off of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) “working definition,” which has come under fire for conflating criticisms of the state of Israel with antisemitism.
Groups that have advocated against using that definition include professors at University College London, a cohort of 100-plus Israeli and international organizations that lobbied the United Nations, and even the definition’s original creator.
Language has also become a touchstone at Penn in other ways. On Nov. 9, messages were projected onto Huntsman Hall, Irvine Auditorium, and Penn Commons. They read:
- “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”
- “Let Gaza live”
- “Zionism is racism”
- “Penn funds Palestinian genocide”
- “From West Philly to Palestine, occupation is a crime”
- “Free Palestine”
- “Liz Magill is complicit in genocide”
- “10,000 murdered by Israeli occupation since October 7”
Magill described the projections as “vile, antisemitic messages,” adding that “too many have masked antisemitism in hostile rhetoric” over the generations.
But many others at Penn saw the messages as either critical of Israel or anti-Zionist, but not antisemitic.
So there’s a sit-in now?
On Nov. 14, students began a sit-in at Houston Hall dubbed “Freedom School for Palestine.”
Led largely by a network of graduate students, conveners of the “teach-in” space have three main demands: That Penn, institutionally, calls for a ceasefire, that freedom of speech is protected on campus, and a general call to “institute critical thought on Palestine.”
The students see shortcomings with the university’s responses to campus demonstrators advocating for a ceasefire, and with the way Penn is handling its mission of education in the midst of a world-shifting event.
So far, the sit-in has largely been a space for students to gather and share their thoughts and experiences with invited guest speakers, often faculty from Penn or other universities or people with direct experience of life in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Students have followed Penn’s “Guidelines on Open Expression,” and the university has allowed the sit-in to remain.
The article has been updated to include Magill’s resignation.
The post Why Penn is in turmoil over the Israel-Hamas war, and what’s happening on campus right now appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY.
