Two staffers and a campus-based pro-Palestinian group recently sued the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) in an effort to stop the transfer of documents related to a congressional investigation into antisemitism at the ivy league school.
The House Education Committee opened an investigation into antisemitism on UPenn’s campus following a Dec. 5 hearing where the former president of the university, Liz Magill, refused to say whether or not calling for the genocide of Jews constituted a violation of the school’s code of conduct. Now, a lawsuit has been filed by two faculty members and the Penn Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP), asserting that providing documents to the committee would violate students’ and faculties’ freedom of speech and potentially endanger them. (RELATED: Elite University Sued Over Suspension Of Two Pro-Palestinian Student Groups)
“The House is, exactly as HUAC did in the 1950s, reaching out to chill, threaten and punish Americans whose views it disapproves,” the lawsuit reads.
“The Committee has eagerly joined billionaire donors, pro-Israel groups, other litigants, and segments of the media in accusing Penn of being a pervasively anti-Semitic environment (which it is not),” the lawsuit continues.
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 05: Liz Magill, President of University of Pennsylvania, testifies before the House Education and Workforce Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building on December 05, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Penn FJP was formed in January and is composed of faculty, staff and graduate students, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian, UPenn’s student newspaper. The group held a “die-in” vigil on campus in January to protest against the war in Gaza, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The House Education is in search of documents related to student and faculty activities around anti-Israel protests on campus, according to the Inquirer. It is also requesting paperwork related to the sources of funding and activities of anti-Israel student groups at the university.
Harvard and MIT are also under investigation following the hearing, and the Biden Administration’s Department of Education has opened an investigation into both universities.
Multiple student organizations at universities around the U.S. held pro-Palestinian rallies on campus following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, and some used violent anti-Israel slogans.
UPenn and the House Education Committee did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comments.
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