Philly area politicians are split on student demonstrations at local campuses

The political divide over the war in Gaza was starkly evident this week in Philadelphia as local officials spoke out about student demonstrations at University of Pennsylvania and other local campuses.

State Rep. Rick Krajewski, whose district includes Penn, as well as Philadelphia State Sen. Nikil Saval and State Rep. Tarik Khan, visited the Penn encampment on Thursday, according to a Daily Pennsylvanian report.

Khan said he wants to make sure students are “able to peacefully protest” and Saval condemned “universities that have called police on their students simply for expressing their voice in protest and right in assembling peacefully,” according to the report.

Krajewski posted a video of himself speaking on Penn’s campus on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and wrote: “Students have always risen up against apartheid and genocide. Today that legacy continues at Penn, Temple and Drexel. Free Palestine!”

Krajewski and Saval visited the encampment again on Friday.

City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, whose district includes the university, did not attend the protest but a spokesperson for her office told the Daily Pennsylvanian that she “believes students have a right to peacefully organize and protest.”

Gov. Josh Shapiro took a decidedly different stance from lawmakers who championed the protests this week when he said that local leadership should “step in and enforce the law” if universities can’t guarantee students’ safety, according to a Politico report.

On Friday, Manuel Bonder, a spokesperson for Shapiro, said in a statement to The Inquirer that the governor supports the right to peacefully protest as long as they follow university policy and the law.

“The governor has also made clear that universities must keep their students safe and take a stand to combat hate and antisemitism,” Bonder added.

Meanwhile, State Sen. Anthony H. Williams (D., Phila.), whose district includes Penn, said in an interview that the Penn protests are too new for him to comment on, but if they follow the patterns of similar protests across the country, organizers should be wary of distractions that detract from the purpose of their protest, such as people praising Hamas.

People who are disrespectful and intimidating of those who don’t agree with them have taken advantage of the platform created by students across the country who want to protest the war, he said.

He said protesters “have to take on the same responsibility that those of us in the Civil Rights Movement took on to control and influence” the movement, and organizers need a strategy to guarantee the protests are about dissent, not intimidation. Just making a statement saying they don’t stand with disrupters isn’t enough, he said.

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Pennsylvania’s representatives in the U.S. Senate similarly kept their messages focused on safety with an emphasis on the safety of Jewish students.

Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.), responded to protests by urging Republicans in Congress to pass an antisemitism bill he introduced two weeks ago with South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott.

The bill, backed by seven Democrats and seven Republicans, would require the U.S. Department of Education “to consider” the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism for investigations to determine whether there is a hostile environment on campus, which could result in a withholding of federal funding. Casey said Congress also needs to increase funding for those investigations.

The IHRA considers drawing comparisons of Israeli policy to Nazis and claiming that the existence of Israel is racist as two examples of antisemitism, which could conflict with some protesters’ sentiments.

Casey said schools should have clear codes of conduct but declined to assess how universities have been handling the protests in Pennsylvania or whether the encampments should come down. Asked if he thought the students might influence U.S. policy, Casey said he supports the case for more food and aid and medicine sent to Gaza but has been concerned by conversations with protesters who do not recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization.

”If I say that Hamas is a terrorist organization, and needs to be disabled, needs to be wiped out … and they disagree with me, I can’t really have a conversation with someone who’s not willing to condemn terrorism or condemn Hamas,” Casey said on Friday.

Casey also introduced the Protecting Students on Campus Act in January with Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R.,La.) which is designed to help students report alleged civil rights violations at federally funded institutions. Fetterman spokesperson Carrie Adams said the senator believes in students’ right to protest but also wants to make sure “all students” feel safe on campus.

Fetterman shared a screenshot of an article from The Guardian on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, about students protesting the war along with a comment focused on Hamas and the violence Israel experienced on Oct.7.

At a Thursday night rally, Pennsylvania Republican Senate nominee Dave McCormick disavowed the campus protests occurring in Pennsylvania and across the country.

“We’re in trouble spiritually,” he said to a room of supporters in Media, in Delaware County. “… It was just happening at Penn today. Can you believe those kids marching on our college campuses all over the country? Can you — I mean honestly — can you believe it?”

McCormick said students at what he called the best colleges in the county don’t know the difference between right and wrong, and good and evil. He blamed college presidents, saying they have a lack of leadership and “moral clarity,” both insults he also uses to describe Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, whom he will face in the general election.

He called the demonstrations “anti-American” and said universities that “sanction such behavior” shouldn’t get federal funding for research or be eligible for tax-exempt status for their endowments. He called the behavior antisemitic and “bordering on violence,” and said that law enforcement should clear out the encampments.

Dave Sunday, the Republican nominee for attorney general, said in an interview at the same GOP rally that he doesn’t know all the details and nuances of the protests. He said the first amendment is critical, but demonstrations must be safe.

“I think there needs to be a balance where people can exercise their right to free speech, but we have to protect students,” he said. “Students should not be afraid of physical harm on their campus.”

But what about non-physical harm, such as students who say they don’t feel safe because of antisemitic speech? It depends on the situation, Sunday said, who was a career prosecutor and is the York County District Attorney.

Staff writer Julia Terruso contributed to this article