Penn President Walks Back Congressional Remarks on Antisemitism After Backlash
Liz Magill says in video that calls for genocide of Jewish people would be considered harassment and intimidation in her view
University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill backtracked from comments she made during a congressional hearing addressing antisemitism on college campuses after facing an outpouring of criticism over her remarks.
Lawmakers questioned Magill and the presidents of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Tuesday about their responses to protests against the Israel-Hamas war, sometimes featuring antisemitic rhetoric, that have led to rising tensions on their campuses. During one exchange, the presidents were asked if calling for the genocide of Jewish students would violate the policies of the schools. Magill said it depended on the context.
“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,” Magill said in a video message released Wednesday night. “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.”
Magill said in the video calls for genocide of Jewish people would be considered harassment and intimidation in her view.
“A call for genocide of Jewish people is threatening, deeply so,” Magill said. “It is intentionally meant to terrify a people who have been subjected to pogroms and hatred for centuries and were the victims of mass genocide in the Holocaust.”
Magill said Penn would immediately evaluate and clarify the university’s policies on this matter. A spokesman for Penn didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Magill’s new statement comes after a wave of criticism of her congressional testimony from Penn’s alumni, elected officials and others. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said Wednesday Magill’s initial testimony was “absolutely shameful” and called on Penn’s board of trustees to meet to discuss her future. Magill had already faced calls for her resignation over how Penn has handled growing antisemitism on campus following the Hamas attack in Israel on Oct. 7.