UPenn donor pulls financial support over school's unwillingness to 'call out evil'
UPenn donor David Magerman explains why he pulled funds after the school refused to call out support for Hamas and antisemitism
A UPenn donor who wrote a scathing letter to his alma mater pulling funding following Hamas' attack on Israel is urging Americans to reexamine their loyalties to the colleges they once attended.
University of Pennsylvania donor David Magerman told "America's Newsroom" Monday that the school's September "Palestine Writes" festival and subsequent response was the last straw in a "downward trend" for the Ivy League university.
"The speakers that populated the festival were people with affiliations to Hamas, antisemites, people who are known to be antagonistic to Israel. And there were no real efforts made by the administration to speak out against the conference," he said.
"I understand there's some freedom of speech, but, you know, when things are going on that are affiliated with evil, I think you have to take a stand."
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Philadelphia, USA - May 28, 2019: Even by Ivy League standards, the University of Pennsylvania's campus is very green and shady, as seen in this view along Locust Walk. (iStock)
Last week Magerman shared a letter sent to the school announcing he would be halting his donations in the wake of the terrorist attacks carried out against Israel, adding he was "ashamed" to be associated with the university.
"You have shown me who you are. My only remaining hope is that all self-respecting Jews, and all moral citizens of the world, dissociate themselves from Penn," the letter, dated October 15, said.
"I think that we need to be looking more prospectively and looking at institutions that are currently reflecting our values and consider donating not based on our historical affiliations," Magerman said Monday, "but based on what we want the world to be, and sending our children to schools that represent our values as well."
UPenn President Liz Magill, along with other school leaders, released a statement addressing the controversy surrounding the event: "While the festival will feature more than 100 speakers, many have raised deep concerns about several speakers who have a documented and troubling history of engaging in antisemitism by speaking and acting in ways that denigrate Jewish people. We unequivocally — and emphatically — condemn antisemitism as antithetical to our institutional values."
"It's a negotiated statement," Magerman responded. "If that was what she really felt, she would have said that from the beginning. The point is not to make a statement against an action that they saw that people are protesting against. The point is to call it evil. And what Hamas did on October 7th was undeniably evil."
"The University of Pennsylvania is not willing to call out evil and act against it in the name of remaining neutral."
Magill said in an additional statement provided to FOX News Digital that the university stood "emphatically against the terrorist attacks by Hamas in Israel and against antisemitism."
Pro-Palestine student groups marched on Harvard Business School Wednesday in protest of Israel's "genocide" of the Palestinian people. (Fox News)
Another email sent to students on Wednesday said Penn would not "tolerate and will take immediate action against any incitement of violence" and actual violence and condemned hateful speech on campus.
Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr. also recently announced his foundation would be stopping donations to the school over the controversy.
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Fox News' Hanna Panreck contributed to this report
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