Penn, Drexel, and Temple students demand recognition of Gaza from universities amid fears of doxing and retaliation

Hundreds of students at Philadelphia’s three largest universities protested in solidarity with Palestinian people in the war-torn Gaza Strip on Wednesday, criticizing the academic institutions over what they say has been a lopsided pro-Israel atmosphere since war broke out Oct. 7.

The rallies at Temple University, Drexel University, and the University of Pennsylvania — part of a groundswell of walkouts at campuses nationwide — come amid accelerating tensions between students, faculty, administration, and even major donors over how the academic institutions align themselves in the overseas conflict.

Wednesday’s walkout came a week after hundreds of Penn community members marched in unity with Israel, similarly criticizing the Ivy League administration over what they called an inert response to allegedly antisemitic rhetoric on campus, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper.

Protesters on both sides have shared common grievances in recent weeks — a desire for university leaders to more loudly validate their causes, and a fear over public safety for both Jewish and Palestinian students on campus.

Nada Abuasi, a Drexel graduate student who has family and friends in both Palestinian territories, said university officials have not offered adequate public support to Palestinian students such as herself. Many, she said, feared that too-public expressions of solidarity could also lead to severe repercussions.

“Folks have to censor what they say,” Abuasi told The Inquirer on Wednesday. “They have to not speak about certain things because they’re afraid of how professors will react, they’re afraid of how the administration will react — and the reason this fear exists is because they’ve seen it happen to others.”

In University City, Abuasi and about 200 students marched from the dragon statue at Drexel into the heart of Penn’s campus, chanting messages of support while chiding university leaders to publicly recognize the Gazans suffering in the war, which has now killed more than 1,400 people in Israel and more than 6,500 people in Gaza.

In North Philadelphia, about 100 Temple students, many clad in kaffiyehs that covered their mouths, gathered under the campus bell tower, leveling similar claims against university leadership.

Students for Justice in Palestine, which organized the Temple rally, blasted Temple president Richard Englert for his Oct. 13 statement that condemned the Hamas attack while also vowing to maintain a “diversity of thought” about the conflict on campus. Englert’s statement mentioned both “the horrific violence in Israel” and “the ongoing violence in Gaza,” but the student group said the memo offered “one-sided” sympathy for Israel.

A petition started by the group, which had been signed more than 1,300 times as of Wednesday evening, claimed that it created a chilling effect for Palestinian students who fear that activism on campus would lead to “smear campaigns, doxing, and the distortion of [their] narratives to portray [them] as terrorists.”

A Temple spokesperson said Englert did not plan to make an additional public statement, but shared a private email he sent to the student group responding to criticisms that his previous university-wide memos were not “emphatic enough” about the loss of life in Gaza. In the message, he told the group that the civilian death toll was “heart-wrenching” and a deep concern for the university.

“As president of this university, it is not possible for me to reflect all the views of our Temple community,” Englert wrote to the group. “What I can do, though, is to emphasize the values that this institution holds dear, including respect for all people and the rejection of violence and terrorism in any form.”

A Drexel spokesperson said the university is committed to “creating an environment where community members can safely engage in challenging — and even uncomfortable — conversations” and said that president John Fry had expressed “his full sympathy” to Drexel community members who have loved ones in both Israel and Gaza. Penn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Many demonstrators at both campuses on Wednesday wore face coverings and said they would not speak publicly with the media, for fear of being targeted by university officials or losing financial aid due to the increasingly inflammatory tenor of the Israeli-Palestinian debate.

Several pointed to a recent doxing incident at Harvard University, where students who signed an anonymous letter blaming Israel for the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre were later identified and accused of antisemitism, their photos publicized on a digital billboard that was driven around campus.

Toward the end of the rally on Penn’s campus, a man walked through the crowd with his cell phone, attempting to film the faces of dozens of demonstrators. He left the scene without incident after being confronted — but the interaction left many on edge and spoke to the fraught moment unfolding on campuses.

“The surveillance, harassment, and intimidation of these young people is like no other,” said Devan Spear, a Penn alumna and activist who alleged that she had been targeted for supporting pro-Palestinian groups on campus more than a decade ago.

“I know a lot of students and faculty are being threatened right with the loss of jobs or job possibilities,” Nour Qutyan, a Temple graduate and former leader of Students for Justice in Palestine, told the crowd in North Philadelphia. “I don’t want this to be a moment where your fear silences you.”

Tensions over the conflict had been bubbling in the months before the war. The Palestinian Writes literary festival at Penn last month erupted in controversy over the inclusion of speakers who had been accused of antisemitism. The university’s handling of the festival led to several heavyweight donors threatening to close their checkbooks, with at least one calling on university leaders to resign.

Some demonstrators said they didn’t have high hopes over the situation at their schools. But Shane Mosley, 21, a former Drexel student who now attends the Community College of Philadelphia, said he is hopeful that students could pressure their institutions to, at the minimum, clarify their support for students who show support for people in Gaza and the West Bank.

“I think behind the scenes, there’s a lot of turmoil, a lot of division,” he said. “If this movement keeps up, then something’s gotta give.”