The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the country’s oldest pro-Israel group, has written to Temple University to demand tough action against pro-Palestinian protesters who targeted the Hillel, the local Jewish student center.
As the Jerusalem Post noted:
Temple University in Philadelphia is investigating pro-Palestinian demonstrators who marched on the campus Hillel and used megaphones to “chant directly at the occupants within the building,” Richard Englert, Temple University president, said in a statement Thursday.
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“We are deeply saddened and concerned by these events,” Englert said in his statement. “Targeting a group of individuals because of their Jewish identity is not acceptable and intimidation and harassment tactics like those seen today will not be tolerated.”
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The demonstration, which involved both students and non-students, began at the main campus library Thursday [August 29]. According the Philadelphia Inquirer, video shot by someone at the Rosen Center, Temple University’s Hillel building, shows dozens of protesters chanting and holding signs and Palestinian flags.
In a letter to the university, ZOA president Morton Klein said:
We were horrified that the antisemitic, anti-Israel group that calls itself “Students for Justice in Palestine” (SJP) – a group that is responsible for creating a hostile antisemitic environment for Jewish students on campuses across the U.S. – wasted no time this academicyear in creating a hostile environment for Jewish students at Temple University. On August 29, 2024, SJP organized a demonstration on campus demanding that the university condemn Israel and divest from holdings in Israel. The protest specifically targeted Hillel, the center for Jewish life at Temple.
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[Temple] President [Richard] Englert only mildly scolded the SJP protesters, describing their conduct as “not acceptable.” He was equally mild in describing Temple’s reaction to the SJP protesters’ deliberate targeting of the Jewish community, saying that the university is “deeply saddened and concerned by these events.”
This is a far cry from how President Englert and other university leaders responded when other groups were targeted by hate and bias.
Klein urged that Temple ban Students for Justice in Palestine from campus, as some other universities have done.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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