The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the country’s oldest pro-Israel group, has written to Temple University demanding strong action against pro-Palestinian protesters who targeted Hillel, the local Jewish student center. According to the Jerusalem Post, Temple University in Philadelphia is investigating the pro-Palestinian demonstrators who marched on campus Hillel and used megaphones to “chant directly at the occupants within the building.” Richard Englert, Temple University president, said in a statement Thursday.
We are deeply saddened and concerned by these events. 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.
The demonstration, involving both students and non-students, began at the main campus library on August 29th. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that video shot by someone at the Rosen Center, Temple University’s Hillel building, showed 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 academic year in creating a hostile environment for Jewish students at Temple University.
He added: “On August 29th, 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.
President 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.