The protests in Gaza at universities are having their first consequences: the president of the University of Pennsylvania resigns after statements about anti-Semitism on campus.
New York/Philadelphia. “Does calling for the genocide of Jews constitute harassment or threats?” It's this question from Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York that is Liz Magill's undoing. “If it is targeted and serious, persistent, then it is a threat,” responds the president of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), an Ivy League institution. “So the answer is: yes,” adds Stefanik. “It is a contextual decision, Madam Representative.”
Magill took off his hat at the weekend, of his own free will, it was said. UPenn Board of Trustees Chairman Scott Bok apologized for his statements before he too resigned. Magill seemed overly prepared, he wrote, and gave a legalistic answer to a moral question.
His statements during questioning in Congress last Tuesday made Magill intolerable. Along with Harvard University President Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth, she had to answer questions from lawmakers about how their universities were handling pro-Palestinian protests by students and parties. of the teaching staff. More than 70 members of Congress are also calling for Gay and Kornbluth to leave.