Charges filed in confrontation during Temple Fest

The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office has decided to charge with simple assault a 22-year-old Temple University student who allegedly hit another student at a campus event last month. But a lawyer for the alleged victim says he wants prosecutors to charge the student with ethnic intimidation as well.

The District Attorney's Office, however, said the victim and other witnesses told authorities that they believed the assault was not ethnically or religiously motivated.

The case involves student Daniel Vessal's allegation that he was punched during an argument Aug. 20 near a table set up by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) during Temple Fest, a fair designed to showcase campus activities for students. Vessel, who is Jewish, also alleged that he had been subjected to anti-Semitic slurs.

A law enforcement source said Temple police found that Vessal had approached the SJP table and an intense verbal argument ensued. According to the investigation, the source said, both sides used inflammatory language.

Temple police turned over the results of the investigation to the District Attorney's Office, which charged Abdel Aziz Jalil with simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.

There were no charges of ethnic intimidation against Jalil, who the law enforcement source said had not been involved in the heated confrontation where inflammatory language was used.

Tasha Jamerson, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office, said in a statement Wednesday that "in order for ethnic intimidation to be charged, the malicious intention toward the religion, ethnicity, or race of the victim must be the motive for the commission of the underlying crime."

"According to the victim himself, he does not believe that he was assaulted because of religion, race, or ethnicity," Jamerson wrote. "Witnesses at the scene also expressed the same opinion; they did not believe this victim was assaulted because of religion, race or ethnicity."

Vessal's lawyer, Michael Wildes, said his client told authorities that he had been punched, and that a friend had heard someone use an anti-Semitic epithet.

"It's clear that the government is prosecuting this, and for that we are appreciative, but it should be called out for what it is, and that is a hate crime," Wildes said.

Furthermore, Wildes said, his client was "not in any way involved in any fighting, words, or an aggravated dialogue."

The Anti-Defamation League, which works to fight anti-Semitism, said in a statement that it "applauds" Temple for its investigation, and for "taking these allegations seriously."

Members of Temple's SJP chapter said in a statement last month that the student who allegedly hit Vessal knew members of the group but was not involved with it. The group said it had not used anti-Semitic slurs during the argument, and wrote that such language is "antithetical to SJP's opposition to all forms of structural racism, including anti-Semitism."

SJP did not return messages requesting comment. Jalil, through his attorney, declined comment.

The university's Office of Student Conduct is also looking into the incident.