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College Presidents Under Fire After Dodging Questions About Antisemitism [1]
['Stephanie Saul', 'Anemona Hartocollis', 'More About Stephanie Saul', 'More About Anemona Hartocollis']
Date: 2023-12-06
In response on Wednesday, Senator Bob Casey, Democrat of Pennsylvania, did not mince words. “President Magill’s comments yesterday were offensive, but equally offensive was what she didn’t say,” he said in a statement. “The right to free speech is fundamental, but calling for the genocide of Jews is antisemitic and harassment, full stop.”
Senator John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, described the testimony as “a significant fail.”
“There is no ‘both sides-ism’ and it isn’t ‘free speech,’ it’s simply hate speech,” he said in a statement. “It was embarrassing for a venerable Pennsylvania university, and it should be reflexive for leaders to condemn antisemitism and stand up for the Jewish community or any community facing this kind of invective.”
On Wednesday evening, Ms. Magill apologized for her testimony.
“In that moment, I was focused on our university’s longstanding policies aligned with the U.S. Constitution, which say that speech alone is not punishable,” she said in a video. “I was not focused on, but I should have been, the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate. It’s evil — plain and simple.”
She added, “In my view, it would be harassment or intimidation.”
She also said that Penn would “initiate a serious and careful look at our policies.”
Both Dr. Gay and Dr. Kornbluth were asked the same series of questions about genocide.
Dr. Gay echoed the idea that it “depends on the context” whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated Harvard’s conduct rules.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/06/us/harvard-mit-penn-presidents-antisemitism.html
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