Princeton Won’t Punish Antisemitic Students Who Disrupted Event, Hurled Verbal Attacks At Jews

An event at Princeton University on April 7 featuring the former Prime Minister of Israel, Naftali Bennett, was disrupted and later forced to end by anti-Israel student-activists, who, while masked, then targeted the attendees with antisemitic verbal attacks as they left the event. But Princeton has still not punished the student-activists.

“First came chants about ‘genocide,’” The Wall Street Journal reported. “Then the hall’s fire alarm was triggered. ‘Outside the building, about 200 pro-Palestine protesters chanted, screamed and banged on drums,’ the Daily Princetonian said. Two students wrote…to President Christopher Eisgruber that people in the crowd yelled ‘go back to Europe,’ and that agitators aimed ‘triangle imagery at Jewish students, in reference to the Hamas symbol used to target Western enemies.’”

Christopher L. Eisgruber stated that he was “appalled at reports of antisemitic language directed by demonstrators at members of our community after” the event, and added that “the University is investigating and will pursue disciplinary measures as appropriate, to the extent any members of the Princeton University community are implicated.”

Princeton wrote in a letter to Danielle Shapiro, a May graduate who serves on the board of Princetonians for Free Speech (PFS), that no students would be punished. Shapiro noted, “The university says it cannot punish people who were shouting antisemitic slurs because it cannot identify them since it was dark and they were wearing masks. Yet the university says nothing about implementing a policy banning masks in certain situations, even though I specifically requested it do so and even though many universities are doing so, including the entire University of California system.”

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“We searched carefully and could find no public announcement, no press release, nor anything on the University’s website about the investigation’s results,” Princetonians for Free Speech stated. “The only mention of it we can find anywhere is a short story in the Princeton Alumni Weekly on May 21. It appears that on that date, Princeton sent an email summary of the report to PAW, and possibly to a few others. But this was, as Ms. Shapiro notes in her article, after she had indicated to Princeton officials that she might make the letter public. Is Princeton trying to hide this report and, with the end of the school year, duck the entire issue?”

“The May 21 statement underplays what happened, as is shown on videos,” PFS pointed out. “For example, the statement adds gratuitously: ‘Several witnesses expressed their view that the individuals who made the antisemitic remarks outside the venue were likely unaffiliated with the University.; Really? First, they were not ‘remarks;’ they were screaming insults of the vilest kind. Second, this is total speculation, not fact, and probably from people who had a self-interest in leaving that impression. We do not know because the report does not say who they were. The University says it cannot identify anyone because it was dark and protesters were wearing masks, and yet cites this speculation. How could the ‘witnesses’ know?”