Penn plans to review policies and training following controversy over Palestine Writes festival

The University of Pennsylvania is planning a review of its policies for granting access to outside groups wanting to host events on its campus following the controversy over the Palestine Writes literature festival held there last month.

The university hasn’t elaborated on what that review will entail, though the school made clear it’s not about excluding controversial speakers.

“Neither our board nor university leadership want to be in the business of vetting and approving each of the few thousand of speakers who are invited by faculty or student groups to speak on our campus each year,” said Scott Bok, chair of Penn’s board of trustees. “That wouldn’t be appropriate. But our president has indicated that the university will look at some administrative processes to be better aware of who is coming to campus, particularly for large-scale events.”

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

The university also pledged to add antisemitism awareness training for faculty, staff and students and find opportunities to have the campus community work together even when there are differences. Work on all is underway, the university said.

Controversy ensued on campus over the last several weeks after critics complained that the festival invited speakers with a history of having made antisemitic remarks. That included Roger Waters, co-founder of Pink Floyd; the U.S. State Department said he has “a long track record of using antisemitic tropes” and a concert he gave in Germany in May “contained imagery that is deeply offensive to Jewish people and minimized the Holocaust,” according to the Associated Press. He appeared on a panel by Zoom.

Tensions also flared over the timing of the festival, which ended just before the start of Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar. And, two acts of antisemitic vandalism occurred in the weeks before the start of the festival. On Sept. 13, a swastika was found painted on the inside wall of a spray booth used for painting projects at Meyerson Hall, home of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design. And one day before the start of the festival, a man who Penn police said was “experiencing a crisis” and “acting erratically” entered Penn Hillel and broke furniture while yelling antisemitic slurs.

The university said there’s no evidence that there was any connection between the acts and the festival, but officials, including university president Liz Magill, in a Sept. 22 statement about the vandalism, acknowledged their proximity to the “controversial speakers” scheduled for the festival.

Officials, though, stood by the university’s commitment to the “free exchange of ideas as central to our educational mission. This includes the expression of views that are controversial and even those that are incompatible with our institutional values.”

Though the conference went on without disruption and was described by some as a beautiful celebration of Palestinian literature, emotions remain raw.

Festival proponents believe that the university did not defend them against the criticism they saw as unfair and discriminatory, and groups who opposed the festival say the school did not do enough either to prevent the appearance of objectionable speakers or condemn them strongly enough.

Susan Abulhawa, executive director of the festival, which attracted more than 1,500 people, was heartened by the students and faculty who supported the event, but characterized Penn’s response as caving “to racist pressures because that’s the side of power and donor money.”

She said they are “easy targets” because they don’t “have the same connections and highly funded networks.”

Abulhawa also faulted Penn for not adequately supporting its Palestinian students.

“There was not a single moment or statement of care for Penn’s Palestinian students who have been marginalized and maligned and subjected to violent propaganda year after year,” she said, “and now during the festival through direct and specific incitement against them.”

Sahar Aziz, professor of law and chancellor’s social justice scholar at Rutgers Law School, said she credits Penn for not canceling the event, but echoed Abulhawa in saying that the school abandoned its Palestinian students.

“Penn fell into the trap of a zero-sum-game framing where any celebration of Palestinian history, art and literature is automatically deemed a threat to Jews and antisemitic, and this is a false frame and it erases and marginalizes Palestinians as a community.”

Although it was important for Penn to take a stand against antisemitism, it should have taken an equally strong stand supporting Palestinian history and culture and recognized that any attempt to shut down the festival was anti-Palestinian, she said.

Some Jewish groups on and off campus spoke in support of the festival, and several dozen faculty at Penn signed a letter, also critical of Penn’s response, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper.

“As you are well aware, in recent years, many critics of Israeli occupation, and the oppression of Palestinian people and Arabs within Israel by the Israeli state, have been branded as antisemitic by Zionist organizations and individuals,” they wrote. “Your statement gives the impression that the entire festival could be seen as hosting views that you see as ‘incompatible with our institutional values.’”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, was in touch with Magill the week before the event to express grave concerns about some of the speakers at a time when antisemitic acts nationally and on college campuses are increasing. Magill, he said, agreed to some important concessions including committing to incorporate antisemitism-awareness training on campus for faculty, students and staff as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

But he said Penn failed to condemn the antisemitism of the speakers publicly “in a clear and cogent way.”

Even though the university said it wasn’t a sponsor of the event, he called it a “difference without a distinction,” given that some academic departments were sponsors, the campus was its location, and some professors were involved. He called it “extremely disappointing” that academic departments were permitted to sponsor the event.

He also said “a transparent explanation” is still needed on how “an outspoken bigot like Roger Waters” was approved to talk at an event on Palestinian literature.

“This guy is an expert in literature like I’m a nuclear physicist,” Greenblatt said.

Waters is a member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement that is critical of Israel over its occupation, and he has said his use of a Nazi uniform was meant to oppose fascism and bigotry, according to Reuters.

Magill in a letter to the ADL acknowledged that including Waters among the speakers was “deeply offensive, misaligned with the festival’s stated purpose, and stands in direct opposition to our institutional values.”

Greenblatt’s group also recommended that the university create a task force of students and alumni to examine the quality of Jewish life on campus.

The university remains under extreme pressure: An open letter to Magill was sent from more than 4,000 alumni and some current and former board members who took issue with Penn’s handling of the event. Philadelphia 76ers managing partner Josh Harris was among the signers.

“The fact that University of Pennsylvania academic departments are co-sponsoring the festival and its platforming of outright antisemitism without denunciation from the university is unacceptable,” they wrote.

Also signing the letter was Paul S. Levy, a former university trustee who once led the law school’s board of overseers. He resigned in 2018 in protest over how the university was treating law school professor Amy Wax, who now is the subject of a university review that could lead to sanctions for making racist comments.

“They are quick to invoke First Amendment rights on behalf of likely antisemitic speakers and suggest no possible reprimand for students or faculty organizing the event,” he said, yet they have instituted action against Wax and haven’t defended her right to free speech.

Emilio Bassini, 73, a Penn alum whose wife and children also are graduates, said he was distraught that objectionable speakers were allowed to appear. That they were invited in the first place reflects holes in the university’s process for granting access to its facilities, said Bassini, a New York City and Miami-based former fund manager who now manages his family’s assets.

He said “it certainly will” affect his future giving, and he expects others will either decrease or stop altogether.

Bok, the trustees chair, said trustees “are reflecting on the range of views expressed by various members of our community” and believe the steps the university took to address concerns expressed in the letter.

“While it’s unrealistic to think that everyone can be fully satisfied on a topic as complex as the one involved here,” he said, “we are confident that the fondness that an overwhelming majority of our alumni feel toward Penn will remain very much intact.”