University of Pennsylvania and the Israel-Hamas war: an explainer

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.

Since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, the Penn community has seen protests by donors, protests by students, and various threats of violence. The response from university administration to all or some of this has upset stakeholders on all sides, and there have been calls for President Liz Magill to resign.

There’s now an ongoing student sit-in, as well as a protest petition signed by academics around the world. Demonstrations continue at least weekly, most recently over the screening of a film critical of Israel, which the university tried to stop.

At its base, the disagreement is over how to differentiate between valid political stances and outright antisemitism — and how administrators with the power to shut down events interpret that distinction.

Penn isn’t entirely unique in its tumultuous situation. Ivy League siblings Harvard and Columbia University are both dealing with some of the same.

Harvard has also seen authority-backed calls for its president to resign , and some notable donors have cut ties , though to a lesser extent than at Penn. The administration at Columbia has faced steep criticism for its suspension of two student groups, and alumni have rallied in support of pro-Palestinian students.

One major difference is that some from Columbia and Harvard have been doxed via a screen-paneled truck displaying the names and faces of students and faculty, describing them as “leading antisemites” in their communities. The trucks were paid for by a conservative organization called Accuracy in Media , and have not yet come to Philadelphia.

One reason the situation at Penn tipped so quickly into tension might be because antisemitic incidents had already occurred on campus prior to the recent overseas attacks.

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.

Magill never considered resignation , per a statement to the Penn community, and 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 is slated to testify Dec. 5 on the matter in front of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

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 meticulously followed Penn’s “ Guidelines on Open Expression ,” and the university has allowed the sit-in to remain for over two weeks.