SWC: Replace University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill with Someone who will Protect Jewish Students

October 20, 2023

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is urging University of Pennsylvania to immediately replace President Liz Magill for her continuing failure to deal with a hostile environment on campus that threatens Jewish students and the  broader Jewish community.

“President Magill continues to allow supporters of terrorist Hamas to parade around Penn’s campus. The world saw on October 7^th, Hamas terrorists murder over 1000 Jews, rape Israeli women, slaughter entire families in their Southern Israel homes, butcher 40 Israeli babies in one community alone, and kidnap over 230 people including Israelis, Americans, and innocents from 45 nations who are being used as human shields in Gaza. The death toll from this massacre represents the single largest death toll in one day of Jews, since the defeat of Nazi Germany,” declared Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWC Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action.

 

Despite those brutal facts UPenn officials kept silent when on Monday morning a reported 700 students as well as faculty members walked back and forth across Penn’s grounds chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as well as “Israel, Israel, you can’t hide, we caught you in genocide.” 

 

This latest incident comes on the heels of the decision of the University to allow an anti-Israel hate fest masquerading as a cultural event to proceed on its campus last month.. The pro-Palestinian event included anti-Israel zealot Roger Waters. Illustrator and Palestinian author Aya Ghanameh, who has tweeted “Death to Israel” on various occasions, and Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah — who has called Israel a “demonic, sick project” — were also invited to the fest.

 

“The University of Pennsylvania needs an intervention. Anyone parroting the Hamas narrative at this time in history is aiding and abetting crimes against humanity. America’s universities deserve leaders who know the difference between free speech and calls to validate the actions of wanton terrorist thugs,” added Cooper.

For further information, please email Michele Alkin, Director of Global Communications at malkin@wiesenthal.com or Shawn Rodgers at srodgers@wiesenthal.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is an international Jewish human rights organization. It holds consultative status at the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the OAS, and the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO).