April 27, 2024
Chris Compendio/PhillyVoice
Protesters decorated the Benjamin Franklin statue in front of Campus Hall with a keffiyeh scarf and signs, as pictured above. On Friday afternoon, a protester spraypainted a message on the statue, which has since been removed.
UPDATE (Sunday): On Saturday evening, organizers of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Penn said they had their first meeting with administration, including interim president Larry J. Jameson and provost John Jackson.
Organizers described the meeting in an Instagram post:
"Members of the encampment reiterated our three main demands — disclose, divest, defend — which have been public since our encampment began three days ago. We were disappointed to hear that administrators viewed our demands as unreasonable. This indicates a failure on the part of university leadership to understand why we have established our encampment. Our demands are the bare minimum. They are the floor, not the ceiling. ... Until these demands are met, we will continue to occupy this space."
The day after protesters set up an encampment at the University of Pennsylvania's College Green area, the school's administration called for the site to be disbanded.
A coalition of pro-Palestine protesters calling for the university to divest funds from corporations profiting from the war in Gaza set up the encampment on Thursday afternoon, which is still present as of Saturday early afternoon.
Interim university president J. Larry Jameson released a statement on Friday evening regarding the protest. "Unfortunately, blatant violations of University policies and credible reports of harassing and intimidating conduct compel us to protect the safety and security of our campus community," the statement reads.
According to Jameson, actions by some protesters "violate Penn’s open expression guidelines and state and federal law." The statement also cites an incident of vandalism on a statue in front of College Hall.
As reported by the Daily Pennsylvanian, an individual spraypainted the words "Zios get fuckt" on the Benjamin Franklin statue. An encampment organizer covered up the graffiti with a keffiyeh scarf and tape before police ordered organizers to remove all signage, chalk and personal items from the statue. Penn employees later sprayed the graffiti off with water.
Jameson's statement called the vandalism "especially reprehensible and will be investigated as a hate crime."
The statement ends by saying that the university has "notified the protestors of their legal and policy violations" and "failure to disband the encampment immediately and to adhere to Penn’s policies will result in sanctions consistent with our due process procedures as they apply to students, faculty, and staff."
A social media post from the Penn Students Against the Occupation of Palestine (PAO), a group that the school banned last week, disputed that the university gave any official notice and affirmed the protesters' rights to form the encampment.
"We denounce Interim President Jameson's mischaracterization of our peaceful community space with acts of violence and vandalism," the post reads, which touts the encampment's programming discussing various topics surrounding Palestine. "We encourage Penn community members to reject this attempt at fearmongering and join us on College Green."
