Princeton University, an Ivy League school in Princeton, N.J., is actively investigating several incidents involving pro-Palestinian protesters disrupting an event on April 7 featuring former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the university confirmed to JNS on Tuesday.
A crowd of roughly 250 protesters, led by the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, gathered outside McCosh 50, the lecture hall where the event was being held, and led chants that could be heard inside. Protesters called Bennett a war criminal and reportedly shouted antisemitic statements, including calling Jewish students “f**king inbred” and telling them to “go back to Europe.”
Inside the event itself, protesters repeatedly interrupted Bennett’s speech, accusing him and the Israeli government of genocide, though many were escorted out quickly by university safety officers.
While the event was only open to students, faculty and staff, anti-Israel activist Sayel Kayed stood up and confronted the former prime minister before being told by staff that he violated university policy, according to Princeton Alumni Weekly. (Princeton University president Christopher Eisgruber confirmed that at least one protester was not a university student or community member, and said the university is taking action against them.)
The official event was forced to end after another protester pulled the fire alarm. However, attendees then joined Bennett on stage with American and Israeli flags, and sang “Gesher Tzar Meod,” “Dayenu” from the Passover Hagaddah, and “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem.
“We regret the disruptions at Monday’s conversation featuring Naftali Bennett,” Michael Hotchkiss, assistant vice president for communications at Princeton, told JNS. “Princeton’s expansive commitment to free expression guarantees, as our policies say, ‘all members of the university community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge and learn.’”
“That guarantee does not provide any person the right to prevent another from speaking or to prevent an event from continuing,” he continued. “We are investigating this situation, including student complaints of harassment by protesters outside the event, and any member of the community who violated our policies is subject to discipline.”
The presidents of Tigers for Israel, an Israel advocacy group at Princeton, and B’Artzeinu, the university’s zionist club, sent a letter on Tuesday to Eisgruber, expressing “grave concern” over this “embarrassing spectacle.” They demanded that he issue a public apology, terminate the Princeton chapter of SJP and “unequivocally condemn the egregious displays of antisemitism,” among other things.
“Princeton’s inability to provide an open forum for the former prime minister of one of America’s fiercest allies is an embarrassment,” Maximillian Meyer, president of Tigers for Israel, told JNS. “This assault on free speech by the anti-Israel mob is but one example of the pervasive moral rot among the loudest voices in ‘elite’ academia.”
In a statement released the same day, Eisgruber said he was “appalled at reports of antisemitic language directed by demonstrators at members of our community” during the Center for Jewish Life-hosted event.
“Such behavior is reprehensible and intolerable,” he continued. “The University is investigating and will pursue disciplinary measures as appropriate, to the extent any members of the Princeton University community are implicated.”
Eisgruber said he was “grateful” to university staff and rabbis for their efforts and that Bennett “had every right to be heard without disruption and to be treated with dignity.” He also stated that he apologized directly to Bennett and thanked him for his visit.
The Trump administration paused $210 million in federal funding to Princeton last month, pending an investigation into Jew-hatred on its campus.