Trucks tour Penn campus calling for Ivy League school president’s firing over her handling of campus antisemitism
Box trucks with billboards demanding the firing of the University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill for her handling of antisemitism were deployed Thursday on the Ivy League school’s campus, Fox News Digital learned.
Box trucks with billboards demanding the firing of University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill for her handling of campus antisemitism were deployed to the Ivy League school on Thursday.
"FIRE LIZ," one truck read as it toured the Philadelphia campus.
Fox News Digital has learned that two privately-funded trucks are circling the University of Pennsylvania campus on streets such as Walnut and Spruce, while making pit stops at popular spots for students like the Penn bookstore. The trucks also show photos of the Jewish victims who have been killed or taken hostage by Hamas.
Trucks blaring University of Pennsylvania President Magill's exchange with Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., are seen on Thursday. (Fox News Digital )
Other trucks criticizing Magill for her failure to "protect Jewish students" or highlighting individual Jews who have been kidnapped by Hamas are also touring the campus Thursday, photos show.
A truck touring the University of Pennsylvania campus features billboards criticizing the Ivy League school's president for failing to "protect Jewish students." (Fox News Digital )
The billboard protests follow a congressional hearing on Tuesday during which Magill, Harvard President Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth were grilled about their handling of antisemitism on their respective campuses following Hamas launching attacks on Israel in October.
Magill particularly came under fire for her rhetoric on whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated the Ivy League school’s code of conduct on bullying or harassment.
"It is a context-dependent decision, Congresswoman," Magill replied to Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., when asked if calling for the genocide of Jews violates her school’s code of conduct.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
"That is not bullying or harassment?" Stefanik responded. "That is the easiest question to answer ‘yes,’ Ms. Magill."
"If the speech becomes conduct," Magill said, "it can be harassment."
University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill testifies before the House Education and Workforce Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
"Conduct, meaning committing the act of genocide?" Stefanik asked. "The speech is not harassment?
"It can be harassment," Magill ultimately said after she was pressed.
The privately-funded trucks touring the Philadelphia campus took particular issue with Magill’s comments to Stefanik, blaring footage of the exchange from loudspeakers.
A billboard truck calling for University of Pennsylvania President Magill's firing is seen on campus Thursday. (Fox News Digital )
"Here’s your context," the billboard trucks also read, accompanied by a photo of a 10-month-old Israeli boy who was kidnapped by Hamas.
Magill attempted to walk back her comments in a social media video posted Wednesday, in which she said that calling for the genocide of Jews is "evil. Plain and simple."
"There was a moment during yesterday's congressional hearing on antisemitism when I was asked if a call for the genocide of Jewish people on our campus would violate our policies. In that moment, I was focused on our university's long-standing policies aligned with the U.S. Constitution, which says that speech alone is not punishable," Magill said in an X post on Wednesday evening.
"I was not focused on, but I should have been, on the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate," Magill said.
Stefanik shot back in response to the video that it was a "pathetic PR clean up attempt."
"This pathetic PR clean up attempt by Penn shockingly took over 24 hours to try to fix the moral depravity of the answers under oath yesterday," she wrote in a post on X. "And there was not even an apology. By the way, the questions were asked over and over and over again.
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"No statement will fix what the world saw and heard yesterday."
Penn did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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