Jewish students at the University of Pennsylvania on Monday attacked school leaders as “powerless” after anti-Israel demonstrators ignored government orders to disband an encampment on campus.
The Ivy League’s interim president, J. Larry Jameson, warned school officials in an email Friday that failure to remove the tent city “immediately” could lead to sanctions, but protesters said Monday night It remained on College Green at the same university at the time.
The scenes unfolding at UPenn are reminiscent of the chaos at Columbia University, where anti-Israel demonstrators rejected the Manhattan school’s request to leave the camp.
Demonstrators, made up of UPenn students, faculty and staff, and people not affiliated with the school, also refused to be required to show school ID. An anti-Israel group praised the fact that no arrests had been made since the school issued the request.
“Thanks to our collective will and strength, we were able to call the regime’s bluff, resist the panic they were trying to mount, and win this first battle,” UPenn’s Palestine the School of Justice wrote on Instagram Monday.
Abraham Franchetti, a Jewish student, told the Post that school leaders took no action after warning him. He said the encampment that emerged last Thursday was “incredibly frightening” for Jewish students, while also disrupting school activities.
“The school just posted a trespassing warning, but it’s mostly ignored,” the second-year student said. “The university can’t seem to do anything about it.”
Another Jewish student, who did not want to be named, echoed similar sentiments.
“I think the university made the right decision in deciding that the camps needed to be removed. The problem is that they haven’t done anything to actually enforce that policy, and this I think it shows a level of cowardice and lack of faith within,” the student said.
A UPenn spokesperson told the Post that Jameson and President John L. Jackson Jr. met with some of the protesting students and faculty Saturday night and heard their concerns.
“They reiterated to demonstrators the importance of following Penn’s policies, which are designed to support open expression while ensuring the safety of everyone on campus,” a spokesperson said. He said this while referring to.
School leaders said in a memo Friday that some protesters exhibited “harassing and intimidating language and behavior” and that a statue was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti, calling it a hate crime. He said he plans to investigate.
“As we have repeatedly emphasized, we support free speech and the productive exchange of ideas, but we do not condone behavior that harasses, intimidates, or intimidates others. We do not,” the school said.
UPenn is one of dozens of universities that have been dealing with the ongoing anti-Israel camps that originated in Colombia’s mini-tent cities earlier this month. Despite instructions from the school to close the store, the rioters remain.
Clashes with police have occurred in some campus tent cities, including at the University of Texas at Austin, where officers in riot gear arrested protesters on Monday. The Associated Press reported that officers used pepper spray against protesters who tried to block a police van carrying the arrestees from leaving the campus.
“Encampments will not be allowed. Instead, arrests are being made,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on X.
