Illustrative: Hundreds of people participated in a rally and march in support of the Palestinians on 42nd Street in Manhattan in New York City on May 11, 2021. Photo by Lev Radin/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

Outraged University of Pennsylvania alumni and students are calling on the school’s administration to publicly oppose an anti-Zionist festival being hosted on campus featuring several activists who have promoted conspiracies about Jewish power and called for violence against Israel.

For several days, Penn’s Jewish community and outside activists have asked unsuccessfully for the university to move or cancel the “Palestine Writes Literature Festival,” which is taking place from Friday to Sunday. The event is sponsored by the school’s Wolf Humanities Center, as well as its Department of Cinema and Media Studies.

The administration’s refusal to move the location of or condemn the festival has led both alumni and the student body to mobilize a movement against it.

“At a time when we are experiencing record levels of anti-Jewish hate across the country and an unprecedented surge of antisemitic incidents on US college campuses, providing a platform for such extremely antisemitic voices will undermine the sense of security and belonging for Jewish students at UPenn and beyond,” says a new letter obtained by The Algemeiner to Penn President M. Elizabeth Magill and signed by over 2,000 prominent alumni and supporters of the university.

The letter adds that Penn should show equal concern for antisemitism that it does for discrimination targeting other minority communities. It also calls on the school to unequivocally denounce the event’s platforming of antisemitic speakers, ensure that no Penn branding is used to promote the event, and implement antisemitism awareness training across the university.

“As alumni and supporters of the University of Pennsylvania, we values its reputation and remain steadfast in our commitment to upholding its values,” the letter continues. “We ask that you take the steps above to ensure the same.”

Meanwhile, a separate letter obtained by The Algemeiner — this one signed by over 200 students — says that, due to the university hosting the festival, “the perception is that UPenn agrees with and endorses the content of these programs — including the antisemitism of the speakers — and in so doing creates a hostile environment for all Jewish students, regardless of their course of study. UPenn is hosting and sponsoring an event that includes speakers who are supporters of terrorism and antisemitism.”

Middle East experts and nonprofit leaders told The Algemeiner last week that the event is an “Israel hate fest” and noted that City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center professor Marc Lamont Hill, a former associate of Louis Farrakhan who has accused Israeli police of training American officers to kill Black people, will be speaking there.

Another speaker listed on the festival’s itinerary, Palestinian researcher Salman Abu Sitta, previously said during an interview that “Jews were hated in Europe because they played a role in the destruction of the economy in some of the countries, so they would hate them.”

Roger Waters, the former Pink Floyd frontman, is also a scheduled speaker. In May, during a concert held in Berlin, he performed in what looked like a Nazi SS officer uniform and played a projection that compared Holocaust victim Anne Frank to Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh — who was accidentally shot and killed last year while covering an Israeli military raid in the West Bank.

The festival itinerary includes a host of other speakers who have praised terrorism against Israel and spoken out against Zionism.

“If there is anything I want to say it is that allowing events like [Palestine Writes] to happen emboldens people who dislike Jews and gives them a voice to act on their deep-seated, real emotions of hate towards the Jewish community,” Penn senior Eyal Yakoby told The Algemeiner. “And these professors who knowingly invited these speakers while knowing their past should be held accountable for alienating Jewish students. I personally will not take a single class with any of them.”

Yakoby transferred to Penn thinking the school was a safe place for Jews after his dormitory at Middlebury College was vandalized not long after he voiced pro-Israel views. He said he will soon meet with Penn Vice Provost for University Life Karu Kozuma to discuss his concerns and show up with dozens of questions that Jewish Penn students asked him to submit on their behalf.

The widespread outcry comes amid reports that Magill opted to let the controversial festival go on. Jewish Insider reported that earlier this week, the Penn president sent a letter to the Anti-Defamation League saying she would not directly intervene in the matter due to the school’s “commitment to open expression and academic freedom.”

On Thursday, however, a major Jewish civil rights group wrote to Magill, arguing the university’s apparent support for the festival has created the impression that it endorses the extremist ideologies of the activists who will be speaking and opened the door to discrimination.

“Reports of new antisemitic vandalism on your campus today indicate that we are already seeing the foreseeable consequence of this failure to take strong leadership. You simply cannot allow this to happen,” the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law wrote.

On Thursday morning, an unidentified male walked into Penn’s Hillel building behind a staffer and shouted “F___ the Jews” and “Jesus Christ is king!” before overturning tables, podium stands, and chairs, according to students and school officials who spoke with The Algemeiner.

Just one week earlier, a giant swastika was graffitied in the basement of the university’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design.

“Hate breeds hate,” said Liora Rez, founder and executive director of StopAntisemitism. “This underscores the urgency for President Magill to relocate the upcoming panels featuring antisemitic speakers from campus this weekend. Do we really have to wait until someone is harmed before she takes action?”

Jacob Baime, CEO of the Israel on Campus Coalition, added of the recent vandalism: “The incident at Penn … is outrageous. The administration must swiftly condemn this antisemitism and do more to protect Jewish students. It is no surprise to see Jews attacked on campus the same week Penn is hosting a radical anti-Israel hate fest.”

The Brandeis Center noted in its letter that recent guidance issued by the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights emphasizes that antisemitic discrimination must be addressed as promptly and seriously as any other form of racism. “Penn must not permit a double standard when it comes to antisemitic hate,” the group writes.

The Algemeiner has reached out to Penn for comment for this story.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.