The Temple University logo. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – A Temple University student was reportedly punched in the face and called anti-Semitic slurs by members of  Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) on the Philadelphia campus Wednesday.

Daniel Vessal, a campus fellow of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) and a member of the Jewish fraternity AEPi, was assaulted during “Templefest,” an annual event for students to gain information about various campus clubs before the start of classes. He was called a “kike” and a “baby killer,” TruthRevolt reported.

“I’m walking down Polett Walk, one of the main walkways through Temple University, and I see the SJP table,” Vessal told TruthRevolt. “I go up to them and I really just wanted to see what angle they were coming from. I went up to the table and started talking to them. I said, ‘Listen, you shouldn’t be protesting Israel—if anything protest the terrorists.'”

“This one girl sitting at the end of the table was just laughing and laughing at me,” he continued. “As she was laughing at me, people at the table were calling me a ‘baby killer.’ I said when she stops then maybe we could have a genuinely peaceful conversation. And then this kid just rocks me in the face as hard as he can. My glasses flew off. After a two-second blur I had no clue what had happened. I couldn’t believe the kid actually hit me.”

Vessal added, “When the police came over and were filing the report, the kids at the table were screaming, ‘You Zionist pig, you racist, that’s what you get.'”

Police briefly detained the student who threw the punch, but then released him, according to Vessal. “I don’t understand why after physical assault he just got sent home. This was not anti-Israel at all, it was completely anti-Semitic,” he said.