The war in Gaza is hitting several universities in the United States hard, where anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents have increased in recent weeks. It is in this context that the president of the prestigious private university of Pennsylvania (UPenn) announced her resignation yesterday, Saturday, December 9 evening. Liz Magill was under fire after her highly controversial statements before a House of Representatives committee on Tuesday regarding anti-Semitism on American campuses.
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“ Liz Magill made an unfortunate misstep », writes the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). And the ” misstep » of this recognized jurist, is to have defended freedom of expression, a fundamental value in the United States.
Along with the presidents of two other elite universities, Harvard and MIT, Liz Magill was interviewed this week by a Republican elected representative of Congress. Elected official who equated student calls to “ the intifada » to a call to “ genocide against the Jews » which, according to her, would violate campus regulations on harassment.
Balancing artist
According to the UPenn president and her colleagues, words alone are not objectionable as long as they are not transformed into actions. But, in a tense political context, this balancing act by Liz Magill sparked a wave of indignation.
The Democratic governor of Pennsylvania called his remarks “ unacceptable “, a private donor withdrew $100 million in funds from the university and elected officials in Congress are now also demanding the departure of the presidents of Harvard and MIT. For their part, many civil rights defenders are concerned: according to them, universities must absolutely guarantee a free debate of ideas instead of giving in to political pressure.
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