There has been an alarming amount of support for terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah by UPenn students and faculty, according to social media posts.
The University of Pennsylvania organization, Students for Justice in Palestine, recently called for “death to Israel” in a social media post.
They also shared another post that compared the assassination of Hezbollah founder Hassan Nasrallah to 9/11, as well as a post that vocalized their support for Hezbollah with the news of Nasrallah’s death.
Critics are calling for UPenn to take action and for the students in this group to be disciplined and expelled.
The University of Michigan Justice in Palestine student group shared similar posts calling for “death to Israel” and supporting Hezbollah. University President Ono revoked their status as a disciplinary action.
These examples are a continuation of antisemitism on college campuses since the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. In May, students at UPenn were heckling the video footage of the 10/7 attack by yelling “Liar, liar colonizer”, vocalizing their support of the attack as being justified.
Just ten days after the terrorist attack, UPenn students were seen taking down posters of kidnapped Israelis that were being held in Gaza by Hamas.
UPenn is currently facing a lawsuit by students alleging the university failed to sufficiently respond to antisemitism on campus and has violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Marc Kasowitz with Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, the firm representing the UPenn plaintiffs, said, “In the aftermath [of October 7, 2023], we had a number of Jewish families, both students at Ivy League and other universities, and their parents who came to us to say that the atmosphere on campus was hostile and frightening and threatening to their kids.” The firm has similar pending lawsuits against Columbia University, New York University, and Harvard University.
In April, hundreds of UPenn alumni sent a letter to interim President Larry Jameson demanding eight professors be punished for spreading antisemitic “hate speech”. Dr. Jameson became interim president after Liz Magill resigned in December 2023 days after she told a congressional panel that calling for the genocide of Jewish students may not be hate speech and is “context-dependent.”
The alumni alleged that the professors engaged with anti-Israel sentiment after the 10/7 terrorist attack, and they demanded that they be individually investigated. Political Science Professor Anne Norton shared controversial posts, including one claiming Jewish people are best at “playing the victim.” She also commented “True” to a tweet that stated, “Jewish Zionist students feeling unsafe on US college campuses” was just propaganda.
The alumni also alleged that some professors participated in rallies at the school, including English Professor Ania Loomba and Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Mohammed Alghamdi, the latter of whom was caught tearing down hostage posters. Professor Fatemeh Shams was accused of saying “Israelites” deserved the 10/7 terror attack.