UPenn Administration Statement on School-Sponsored Hate Fest Misses the Point

UPenn President Liz Magill and university administrators finally heard the uproar from the Jewish community about the upcoming anti-Israel conference being hosted at their university over the weekend leading up to Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year.

The problem is that the administration’s statement is tepid and completely misses the point.

Let’s back up for a second: UPenn recently announced that it would be holding the “Palestine Writes Literature Festival,” which features egregious anti-Israel and anti-Jewish figures like Roger Waters, who performs in a mock SS uniform with Nazi symbols while desecrating the memory of Anne Frank.

There’s also CUNY Professor Marc Lamont Hill — who stated that we must boycott Israel and free Palestine from the “river to the sea” — among many other scheduled speakers who routinely demonize the Jewish state.

The idea of a literature festival that celebrates the Palestinian culture is great.

That’s not what the “Palestine Writes” festival is, though. It’s a weapon against Israel, and that’s by design, according to Palestinian-American writer and activist Susan Abulhawa, the festival’s executive director, who said, “We will go home someday. No matter how long it takes or what it takes….”

UPenn President Magill and the administration, in their statement, claim that the “event is not organized by the University,” but it is sponsored by four university departments and is taking place next to Houston Hall, where Jewish students will be observing Erev (evening of) Yom Kippur services.

UPenn’s leaders also imply that their continued tolerance of the hate fest is because they “fiercely support the free exchange of ideas … [including] the expression of views that are controversial and even those that are incompatible with our institutional values.”

However, UPenn’s conduct over the last few years belies the claim that their concept of free speech is quite as broad as alleged here.

Consider the case of Amy Wax, a tenured UPenn law professor who has argued cases before the US Supreme Court and also happens to be Jewish. The UPenn administration is in a continuing effort to have her fired over her controversial statements about race. So their support for “free speech” very clearly has limits.

UPenn reportedly kept the charter for a university “Hunting, Archery, and Shooting Club” in limbo for over a year, only relenting when the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) threatened to sue the school in 2021.

In 2021, UPenn also canceled the classes of anthropology professor and Penn Museum co-curator Robert Schuyler when he used the Nazi expression “Sieg Heil” to protest not being allowed to speak on a Zoom call during the pandemic. Shortly thereafter, Professor Schuyler was forced to retire.

Apparently, UPenn is selective about what kind of speech is tolerated, and somehow, hate speech directed against Israel — the world’s only Jewish state — is perfectly fine.

The conference isn’t protesting the current Israeli government; it is protesting Israel.

If the university doesn’t do more to stop this event, they could be opening themselves up to a Title VI complaint under the Civil Rights Act, which the Department of Education has clarified provides “all students, including Jewish students, a school environment free from discrimination based on race, color, or national origin, including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.”

Celebrating Palestinian cultures and literary talent is a positive thing, but this Palestinian festival has clearly been organized with another goal in mind: to attack, defame, and delegitimize Israel.

UPenn needs to condemn and cancel this conference, rather than continue to perpetuate the world’s oldest hatred.

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