Scores of anti-Israeli protesters at the University of Pennsylvania stormed the campus green and set up an encampment Thursday as the Ivy League joined the growing list of schools being overrun by demonstrators.
Jewish UPenn students told The Post that while the protests were largely peaceful, they’re worried that the situation could spiral out of control.
“It’s basically turning into what’s going on at Columbia or some of the other schools,” Abraham Franchetti, a sophomore student studying journalism, told The Post.
“I think the bottom line is they need to clear out this encampment just like the folks did at UT Austin,” he said. “These people represent a distraction and a threat and source of fear to actual dues-paying students. And it’s not even clear that these are actually Penn students who are camped out on the lawn.”
Franchetti and other students told The Post a significant number of the protesters were not UPenn students, but from a large group of several other organizations that marched from Philadelphia’s Center City.
About 200 showed up, waving Palestinian flags and chanting the popular rallying cry “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free,” among other chants, students told The Post.
By 5 p.m., they had pitched their tents, according to university officials.
Another Jewish student, who declined to give his name, said he saw other Jewish students being approached by the protesters who asked if they supported Zionism. He said one student in a kippah was denied from entering the protest area.
Campus security seemed to have no plan to deal with the flood of people, he said.
Another senior student who also did not wish to share his name told The Post he was in class near the college green when he heard the commotion outside.
“There was no violence like we’ve seen at other campuses — Penn did a pretty good job of setting up a lot of security, blocking off certain areas,” he said.
He said he’s particularly concerned that if the university does not address the protests quickly, it could snowball and lead to the UPenn canceling its commencement ceremony, as the University of Southern California announced today over security concerns following its own protests.
The undergraduate class of 2024 is the same class that was robbed of their graduation ceremonies in high school due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m hoping it doesn’t get to that point,” he said, but thinks the demonstrations will definitely last longer than a day.
Franchetti said it’s been disconcerting on campus at times for Jewish students since the demonstrations first began after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, sparking the war in Gaza.
“I think at times it has been really frightening, having kids or people that are not even students showing up and chanting they want an Intifada is particularly frightening,” Franchetti said, noting that the situation had appeared to improve in recent months until Thursday.
The other student who spoke with The Post said there’s been a feeling of “isolation” for Jewish classmates over the last several months.
“The majority of students have been completely fine, however there are a small minority of students who have been openly hostile to any students who don’t share their radical, Pro-Palestine beliefs,” he said.
The senior, who is not Jewish but has Jewish and Palestinian friends, said there has been a lot of unease since October, “but tensions on campus really had quelled.” This week, though, the rhetoric has turned up a notch nationwide amid the widespread demonstrations, he said.
“From a student perspective, student safety should be the foremost priority of the administration,” he said. The administration “has been trying to take strides” to address antisemitism and islamophobia, he added, but said the leaders needs to take control.
A UPenn spokesperson told The Post the school will “respect and support the rights of our community members to protest peacefully” but added “the right to free expression and to protest on our campus is not and can never be absolute.”
“We will not permit protest and speech when it devolves into words and actions that violate Penn’s policies, disrupt University business, or contribute to an intimidating, hostile, or violent environment on our campus,” the spokesperson added.
The school promised “there will be consequences” for those that violate university policy or break the law.
The Philadelphia Police Department confirmed to The Post that there had been no arrests Thursday night.
UPenn’s former President Liz Magill resigned from her position in December under mounting pressure from university donors and the White House following her disastrous testimony before Congress regarding the school’s inability to protect Jewish students after Oct. 7.
