The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), America's oldest pro-Israel organization, has sent a letter to Temple University calling for tough action against pro-Palestinian protesters who have targeted Hillel, a local Jewish student center.
As Jerusalem Post attention:
Temple University in Philadelphia is investigating pro-Palestinian protesters who marched to Hillel on campus and used megaphones to “chant slogans directly to occupants of the building,” Temple President Richard Englert said in a statement Thursday.
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“We are deeply saddened and concerned by these incidents,” Englert said in a statement. “The targeting of a group of people because they are Jewish is unacceptable, and the kind of intimidation and harassment tactics we are seeing today will not be tolerated.”
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The demonstration, which was attended by both students and non-students, began on Thursday at the main campus library. [August 29]According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, video taken by someone at the Rosen Center at Temple University's Hillel campus shows dozens of protesters shouting and holding signs and Palestinian flags.
in letter ZOA President Morton Klein said the following about the university:
We are horrified that an anti-Semitic, anti-Israel group calling itself Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which is responsible for creating a hostile, anti-Semitic environment for Jewish students on campuses across the United States, has so quickly created a hostile environment for Jewish students at Temple University this academic year. On August 29, 2024, SJP organized a demonstration on campus to condemn Israel and demand that the University divest from its assets in Israel. The protest specifically targeted Hillel, the center of Jewish life at Temple University.
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[Temple] president [Richard] Englert gently rebuked the SJP protesters, calling their actions “unacceptable.” He was equally gentle about Temple University's response to the SJP protesters' deliberate targeting of the Jewish community, saying the university was “deeply saddened and concerned by these events.”
This is a stark difference from how President Englert and other university leaders have responded when other groups have been targets of hatred and bigotry.
Klein called for Temple University to ban Students for Justice for Palestine from campus, as other universities have done.
Joel B. Pollack is executive editor of Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday Airs Sundays from 7-10pm (4-7pm ET) on SiriusXM Patriot. He is the author of “Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for preorder on Amazon, and “Trumpish Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump's Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is the 2018 recipient of the Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter Joel Pollack.
