University of Pennsylvania protesters supporting the anti-Israel encampment constructed at the university declared the university’s administration “nefarious” as well as “antagonistic and ableist” on Monday ahead of a third meeting between organizers and the university administrators.
The protesters advanced their claims about the university in a social media post directed at the university, issued jointly by Penn student protest groups Up Against the Occupation and Drexel Palestine Coalition, that followed an update on the anti-Israel encampment at the institution by Interim President J. Larry Jameson.
“The encampment should end,” wrote Jameson on Monday. “It is in violation of our policies, it is disrupting campus operations and events, and it is causing fear for many in our large, diverse community, especially among our Jewish students.”
Nonetheless, Jameson said the university is pursuing options to remove the encampment that “balance possible escalation of the current situation with the need to protect the safety and rights of everyone.”
He additionally wrote, “Every day the encampment exists, the campus is less safe,” and explained, “Protesters wear masks and refuse to produce identification, as required by our policies and stated on each Penn ID, making it difficult to distinguish those individuals who are part of the Penn community from those who are not and are trespassing.”
Jameson’s remarks about the protesters refusing to provide identification and inspiring fear among Jewish students at Penn sparked a fierce rebuke from the protest groups.
“We strongly refute your implication that our encampment poses a threat to members of the Penn community,” the student groups wrote before claiming “counter protesters” actually inspire fear by “physically assaulting members of the encampment, spraying hazardous chemicals, and threatening large crowds of children and families” at the anti-Israel encampment.
The student groups charged, “Painting protestors who mask and decline to show their IDs in order to protect themselves from these threats, as well as doxxing, harassment, and the spread of communicable disease” makes Penn “as nefarious” as it is “antagonistic and ableist.”
Ableist is defined by the Center for Disability Rights as “a set of beliefs or practices that devalue or discriminate against people with physical, intellectual or psychiatric disabilities,” specifically in a manner that suggests those with disabilities should be “fixed.”
One day after the exchange between Jameson and the protesters, organizers met with university administrators who sought to bring a peaceful end to the anti-Israel encampment.
Though the school has yet to discuss the meeting’s results, one student told The Philadelphia Inquirer, “It felt like we were making progress with the school.”
Among their demands, the protesters insist Penn join the controversial Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which some Israelis consider antisemitic, by fully divesting from all ties to Israel.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick recently visited Penn and later told The Pennsylvania Daily Star that he would push senators to “revisit” funding and tax breaks afforded to schools that allowed anti-Israel encampments or antisemitic protests if elected in November.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Pro-Palestine Protesters” by Becker1999. CC BY 2.0.
