Penn’s Hey Day, a decades-old student tradition, rerouted as pro-Palestinian encampment enters second week

At the University of Pennsylvania’s iconic statue of its founder, Benjamin Franklin, police had dispersed a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters Thursday, only to have a young man break through metal police barricades and rush the statue, scaling it and waving a Palestinian flag high above officers who moved in to stop him.

The 20-year-old Temple University student’s frantic dash prompted the return of about 60 pro-Palestinian protesters to the statue area, where verbal clashes played out between supporters and detractors of Israel’s war with Hamas as the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on Penn’s College Green entered its second week.

Demonstrators at times were face to face, hoisting signs protesting the war or draping themselves in the Israeli flag; the same morning, a group of pro-Israel professors and students delivered a petition calling for Penn’s administration to quell the ongoing protests.

For Elliot Ginzberg-Abt, a Penn junior looking on from the edge of the barricaded area, it was hardly the “Hey Day” he had expected. For rising seniors at the Ivy League institution, the annual spring celebration has marked the end of the school year since 1965.

But this year’s event, where Ginzberg-Abt and hundreds of other juniors paraded down the tree-lined Locust Walk, the pro-Palestinian encampment and the skirmishes that surrounded it spurred a noticeable change to the long-held tradition.

“Hey Day has been a tradition for years and years, decades, and it’s been on this grass,” said Ginzberg-Abt, disappointed that he couldn’t snap a Hey Day photo on the Green. “This encampment is on property that we pay for as tuition payers.”

Across several hours, demonstrations, arguments, and the petition raised tensions under the watchful presence of Penn and Philadelphia police officers, though events remained peaceful. Yet on Thursday evening, Penn said in a statement that it had reached out to the city “to ensure we have the necessary police resources to keep our community safe.” The mayor’s office, the university spokesperson said, has asked for more information on what the university needs, and Penn is providing it.

The spokesperson noted that protest activity had escalated overnight Wednesday and continued to build throughout Thursday, triggering the request to the city.

Away from the tense interactions were the juniors who gathered across campus to begin the hallowed Hey Day procession around 10 a.m., as throngs of classmates celebrated wearing the event’s attire: red T-shirt, top hat, and a wooden cane.

Though they were one block away from the encampment, the students were out of earshot from the drum circles and chants of “Free, Free Palestine” that have echoed from the site since last Thursday.

As music from Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber blared from loudspeakers, Hey Day revelers munched on barbecue and snapped photos; others danced along the scenic walk, blurting out their mimosa tally for the morning to friends passing by.

“I’ve just been grinding for finals,” said junior Omar Amben, noting that he supported the protest movement even as he focused on school. “I’m skeptical of people saying it’s making that big of an impact on their lives.”

If the encampment felt distant, students soon learned of its impact after finding out that the Hey Day procession, which typically ends at the College Green, would be diverted this year. The sea of red shirts was instead met by a group of Penn staff and security officials who guided the students toward a tented area outside the Annenberg Center.

Meanwhile, around 10 police officers stood idly at the barricades around the Franklin statue, at times closely monitoring pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators arguing in tense but nonviolent standoffs.

One pro-Israeli supporter chastised a pro-Palestinian protester over Hamas’ stance on LGBTQ rights, to be countered by that protester’s mentioning of the civilian women and children who have died in Israel’s military siege of Gaza.

Elsewhere, around 60 Jewish Penn alumni, faculty and students had gathered on the corner of 34th and Walnut Streets to deliver a petition to the school’s administration urging them to remove the encampment, signed by over 3,000 “concerned” Penn community members.

“The university has to uphold its own policies and its own words,” said senior Eyal Yakobyyou, who was among a group that marched toward the encampment singing pro-Israeli chants in Hebrew.

By late afternoon, the scene at the encampment remained peaceful.

For students who had attended both Hey Day and recent pro-Palestinian protests, the day was a balancing act between a long-held tradition and a student movement that’s rocked campuses across the country.

“I think it’s a real privilege to only have to be concerned about finals, or the location of the Hey Day event,” said Sophia, a junior who declined to provide her last name over security concerns, comparing those concerns to the plight of Gazans.

Staff writer Susan Snyder contributed to this article.