Palestinian students and supporters walk out of classes as donors accuse Penn of antisemitism and close their checkbooks

Several hundred University of Pennsylvania faculty, students, and other supporters of Palestinians walked out of classes Monday morning and called on the university to do more for its Palestinian students.

They were particularly upset that president Liz Magill’s statement to the campus community on Sunday, denouncing antisemitism and calling out the Hamas attacks on Israel the week before, never mentioned Palestinians or the deaths of people in Gaza.

“I just want to remind Liz Magill, I’m your Palestinian student,” Penn law student Jenan Abu Shtaya said to the crowd of about 300, drawing cheers.

» READ MORE: Penn president said university ‘should have moved faster’ in opposing Palestine Writes speakers with a history of antisemitism

The protest, which lasted all day, followed the statement Sunday by Magill that said the university “should have moved faster” last month in opposing speakers at the Palestine Writes literature festival who had a history of making antisemitic remarks. She also strongly condemned Hamas’ attack on Israel.

“I want to leave no doubt about where I stand,” Magill said. “I, and this university, are horrified by and condemn Hamas’s terrorist assault on Israel and their violent atrocities against civilians. There is no justification — none — for these heinous attacks …”

Her comments followed weeks of backlash from donors and board members who said the university had not been doing enough to condemn the speakers, and now, to address the situation in Israel. Major donor Jon Huntsman Jr., a former governor of Utah and former U.S. ambassador to Russia, China, and Singapore, said on Saturday in a letter to Magill that his family’s foundation would halt donations to Penn. Another donor, Marc Rowan, who in 2018 gave $50 million to Wharton, said he also would stop giving to the school and called on Magill and board chair Scott L. Bok to resign. A member of the board of trustees, Vahan Gureghian, resigned in protest on Saturday.

While similar clashes are playing out on college campuses across the country following Hamas’ attacks and Israel’s counterassault, the stakes have been raised at Penn, where high-profile donors’ calls for action have only added to prior upheaval over the festival. The literature festival was billed as celebrating Palestinian culture and arts but also invited controversial speakers, including Roger Waters, cofounder of Pink Floyd, who the U.S. State Department said has “a long track record of using antisemitic tropes.”

» READ MORE: Penn donor who gave $50 million calls for university leaders to resign over ‘embrace of antisemitism’

The university did not respond to a request for comment about the protest.

To the speakers at Monday’s protest, none of the backlash Penn faced was justification for Magill not mentioning Palestinians in her campus communication Sunday.

“You cannot write a statement that shows you have only been listening to some trustees and alums,” Eve M. Troutt Powell, a professor of history who specializes in the modern Middle East, said during the protest, held outside Penn’s Van Pelt Library. “You cannot write a statement and assume that there’s no protection for all of us on this campus. This is the University of Pennsylvania. This is our university, too!”

The group carried the Palestinian flag and waved signs: “Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.” “Condemn Hamas, Free Palestine.”

» READ MORE: Charter-school magnate Vahan H. Gureghian resigns as Penn trustee, accusing leadership of embracing ‘antisemitism’

“I am not doing anything but staying here and saying to this campus, to this world, ‘no, no to genocide,’” said Ahmad Almallah, 41, a Palestinian poet and artist-in-residence in the English department’s creative writing program.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health on Monday, more than 2,800 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since Hamas’ attack, the New York Times reported. An additional 1,400 have died in Israel; the Israeli military said Monday that nearly 200 people had been taken hostage by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack.

Ania Loomba, a professor of English and comparative literature, said the protest was held to show disappointment in the administration’s lack of concern and compassion for the loss of lives in Gaza and how it’s affecting students and faculty. She also criticized what she called “the insidious way” the university administration linked the Palestine Writes festival to antisemitism.

“I’ve never done a walkout of class before, but I’m doing it today,” she said. “I have Palestinian students in my class. They are feeling terrified.”

Shtaya, the Penn law student, said Magill’s statements made her feel excluded, as if her experience didn’t matter.

“Recognize our existence,” she said.

Her educational experience at Penn has been top notch, she said, but the leadership of the university hasn’t practiced what she has learned.

“It was here where I read texts about the history of colonial regimes and the importance of decolonization,” she said. “I was proud while doing this to be a Penn student and to be in classes with brilliant professors and students. I just want the university to try to do part of what it tries to teach us in the classrooms.”

A 20-year-old student from Jordan who belongs to Penn Students Against the Occupation said her biggest frustration is wishing she could do more for those dying in Gaza. She missed two classes on Monday to show her support at the protest.

» READ MORE: Critics in an uproar over speakers at this weekend’s Palestine Writes literature festival held at Penn

The student asked not to be named because members of a student coalition at Harvard experienced harassment earlier this month when it released a statement that said it held “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” That erupted in controversy with calls for the university to condemn the letter.

At the event at Penn, public safety officers stood around the rim of the protest.

Parents and prospective students on campus tours looked on as the protesters marched up Locust Walk to the Wharton School, where they continued to chant: “Free, free Palestine.”

Outside the Annenberg School for Communication, a truck was parked with a sign plastered on its side, featuring a picture of Magill and reading: “President Magill, Are you ashamed? Resign Today.”

But it looks like that’s not going to happen.

Bok, the board chair, said in a statement that more than 50 current and emeritus trustees have met twice virtually over the last few days to allow Magill to update them on the situation and to talk through “the impact this challenging moment is having on Penn’s campus.”

“The unanimous sense of those gathered was that President Magill and her existing university leadership team are the right group to take the university forward,” he said.

Outside Penn Hillel, where Jewish students gather on campus, most students approached didn’t want to discuss the protest or Magill’s Sunday email.

Josh Weissman, 19, a computer science major from Los Angeles, said it was “frustrating” to see the protest after so many innocent Israeli citizens were killed. He was at Penn Hillel the same day last month that a man entered and vandalized it, while shouting antisemitic remarks.

“It was definitely a scary moment,” he said.

Asked if he feels safe on Penn’s campus, he said: “I don’t feel like I’m going to get attacked on a random day walking down Locust. But a month ago, it felt a lot safer.”