At a time of divide on Gaza, Gov. Shapiro and a grieving mother speak of faith, loss, protest — and shared hope

Gov. Josh Shapiro on Friday said he believed strongly in Pennsylvanians’ right to peaceful protest — but stopped short in saying whether the 10-day-long pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Pennsylvania fit the definition.

“People have a right to peacefully protest and to voice their objection to something they see in their neighborhoods, in their community … or across the globe,” he said. “And I support that right to peacefully protest.”

But that right, he said, “cannot be used as an excuse for antisemitism, or Islamophobia, or any other forms of hate.” The protests, he said, need to follow the rules of the campus and of the greater city and commonwealth, and Penn leadership must keep their students safe and campus free from discrimination.

He declined to say whether he thought the encampment at Penn, in which protesters are occupying about 35 tents on the campus’ College Green, was peaceful. And he deferred questions about whether the group should be disbanded to the university.

“I don’t think it’s my judgment on that that matters. I think it’s the university’s judgment that matters,” he said. “They’re closer to it, they see it.”

He said Penn has not requested the help of Pennsylvania State Police to disband the encampment — a move used in California to break up an encampment at UCLA.

He’s been in regular communication with leadership at Penn as well as Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration, he said, declining to disclose the details of the conversations.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence in the mayor,” he said.

The governor’s public comments came after he spent the morning and discussed the very issue with Meredith Elizalde, whose 14-year-old son, Nicolas, was shot and killed by a stray bullet after a high school football game in September 2022.

Shapiro met Elizalde outside Roxborough High School, on the steps where Nick died, to see the mural that was unveiled last June in honor of her son, a sprawling collection of colorful symbols and moments reflecting Nick’s life: his love for animals, the ocean, football, and his Chicano roots and Muslim faith.

» READ MORE: My son, Nick Elizalde, brought people together. We need to follow his example.

Since Nick’s death in September 2022, Elizalde has dedicated much of her time to speaking about gun violence, and advocating for intervention at the state and city level to keep children safe and guns off the streets. But as a Muslim woman, she’s also a fierce supporter of Palestinian freedom and rights — a cause that she and Nick frequently discussed and attended protests about before his death.

Standing beneath a football scoreboard dedicated to her son, Elizalde asked Shapiro to think of Nick amid the encampment protesters. If her son were alive, she told him, she believes he would be alongside them, calling for a cease-fire.

She requested that, if there comes a time where he has to make a decision about using force to disband a protest encampment, that he remember her and her son.

Shapiro, who is Jewish, nodded carefully, and said the cause is a righteous one. He told her what he would go on to share publicly later — that he believes firmly in the right to protest, but that it can never be used as an excuse for hatred or antisemitism. She agreed.

» READ MORE: The mother of Roxborough shooting victim Nicolas Elizalde, 14, has a message: ‘He isn’t a number’

It was a small moment, but full of what so much of the conversation surrounding the war in Israel and Gaza has not been — measured, thoughtful, respectful of each other’s identities and personal investments.

“We’re both people of very deep faith,” Shapiro later said. “Obviously different faiths, but faiths that are taught to love and faiths that are taught to respect one another.”

“And we came from brothers,” Elizalde added. “Ishmael and Isaac.”