October 16, 2023
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
Penn President Liz Magill says the university 'should have moved faster' to condemn antisemitism ahead of the Palestine Writes Literature Festival it hosted. The event, which preceded the Hamas attack on Israel, included speakers known for antisemitism.
Facing calls for her resignation, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill acknowledged Sunday the Ivy School "should have moved faster" to condemn antisemitism and address criticism over hosting last month's Palestine Writes Literature Festival.
The on-campus event included a number of speakers "with a public history of speaking out viciously against the Jewish people," Magill wrote in a letter to the Penn community. The conference coincided with the High Holy Days of the Jewish calendar and backlash against Penn intensified after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
In recent days, some of the university's notable alumni and donors — including former Utah governor and U.S. ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr. — rebuked Penn's leadership and Board of Trustees. Huntsman decried their "moral relativism," while Wharton School board chair Marc Rowan said Penn has exhibited "selective tolerance of hate."
Magill, who took over as Penn's president in July 2022, said she understands the gravity of the complaints made against the university.
"Many have voiced their anger and frustration about this event. Please know that I hear you," Magill said. "I know how painful the presence of these speakers on Penn's campus was for the Jewish community, especially during the holiest time of the Jewish year, and at a University deeply proud of its long history of being a welcoming place for Jewish people. The University did not, and emphatically does not, endorse these speakers or their views."
The festival had been presented as a celebration of Palestinian arts and culture. Various sessions included sponsors from university departments and Philadelphia-based cultural organizations. Many of its organizers and speakers were clear that its aims also were political.
"It is meant to be an intersectional defiant space, where we can exist for a brief moment with agency and with our friends in our refusal to disappear, our refusal to forget or forgo our ancient past, and our refusal to accept the racist trope that pervades Western imaginations," Susan Abulhawa, the festival's executive director, said during her opening remarks on Sept. 22.
Abulhawa responded to Magill's letter on Sunday, calling the Penn president "cowardly, immoral, and dishonest" in a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter.
Demonstrations have taken place in Philadelphia during the last week by supporters of Israel and Palestine. On Monday morning, some Penn students participated in a walkout at the library "to protest the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza" and to stand in solidarity with Palestine.
Over the weekend, a truck with a digital billboard displayed Magill's face and the question "Are you ashamed?" outside the Penn Bookstore at 36th and Walnut streets. The truck is owned by Alums for Campus Fairness, a group that speaks out against antisemitism and demonization of Israel on college campuses.
"Alumni have organized this mobile billboard to highlight the sad state of affairs for Jewish students at Penn under President Elizabeth Magill," Avi D. Gordon, the group's executive director, said in an email. "Her actions and inactions over the past month represent a moral failure and a permanent stain on the university. She has enabled antisemitism and endangered the Jewish community. It is time for her to go."
The university's critics say the Palestinian writers event provided cover for openly hateful and antisemitic groups to disparage Jewish people. Among those who participated in event were Pink Floyd cofounder Roger Waters, whose performances have sometimes included imagery and comments minimizing the Holocaust and denigrating Jews.
After Hamas militants attacked Israel and killed more than 1,000 civilians in the communities outside Gaza, critics said Penn's leaders had remained too quiet about what was unfolding. Hamas, which controls Gaza and has a military wing, is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and other countries.
Israel, in response, declared war against Hamas and Israeli military strikes in Gaza had killed 2,670 people in the territory as of Sunday, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Huntsman, a 1987 Penn graduate and former university trustee, wrote a letter to Magill informing her that his foundation would no longer donate to the University of Pennsylvania.
"The university’s silence in the face of reprehensible and historic Hamas evil against the people of Israel (when the only response should be outright condemnation) is a new low," Huntsman wrote. "Silence is antisemitism, and antisemitism is hate, the very thing higher ed was built to obviate."
Penn trustee Vahan H. Gureghian resigned from the board over the stances the university has taken in recent weeks.
"We live in a world of deepening divisions with an ever-growing number of people expressing radical intolerance and advocating violence against religious and ethnic groups," Gureghian wrote in his resignation letter.
And in an op-ed, Wharton's Rowan said the university had embraced "double standards" and used free speech "as a crutch" to defend hosting the Palestine Writes Literature Festival. Leading up to the event, the campus building of Penn Hillel, the school's Jewish organization, was vandalized and a swastika was found spray-painted at Meyerson Hall. Penn administrators condemned those acts, but the literature event continued as planned.
Rowan intensified his and other trustees' calls for Magill and Board of Directors Chair Scott Bok to step down.
Magill gave no indication in her letter that she plans to resign. She said the university will continue to monitor threats of violence on campus and in Philadelphia.
"I stand, and Penn stands, emphatically against antisemitism," Magill said. "We have a moral responsibility — as an academic institution and a campus community — to combat antisemitism and to educate our community to recognize and reject hate. I look forward to continuing to work with Jewish leaders, faculty, students, and staff at Penn and elsewhere to ensure we are fostering a safe and inclusive environment."
