UPenn swarmed by anti-Israel protesters who set up encampment on campus

Scores of anti-Israeli protesters at the University of Pennsylvania stormed the campus green and set up an encampment Thursday as the Ivy League joined the growing list of schools being overrun by demonstrators.Jewish UPenn students told The Post that while the protests were largely peaceful, they’re worried that the situation could spiral out of control.“It’s basically turning into what’s going on at Columbia or some of the other schools,” Abraham Franchetti, a sophomore student studying journalism, told The Post. “I think the bottom line is they need to clear out this encampment just like the folks did at UT Austin,” he said.

“These people represent a distraction and a threat and source of fear to actual dues-paying students.And it’s not even clear that these are actually Penn students who are camped out on the lawn.”Franchetti and other students told The Post a significant number of the protesters were not UPenn students, but from a large group of several other organizations that marched from Philadelphia’s Center City.About 200 showed up, waving Palestinian flags and chanting the popular rallying cry “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free,” among other chants, students told The Post.

By 5 p.m., they had pitched their tents, according to university officials.Another Jewish student, who declined to give his name, said he saw other Jewish students being approached by the protesters who asked if they supported Zionism.He said one student in a kippah was denied from entering the protest area.

Campus security seemed to have no plan to deal with the flood of people, he said.Another senior student who also did not wish to share his name told The Post he was in class near the college green when he heard the commotion outside.“There was no violence like we’ve seen at other campuses — Penn did a pretty good job of setting up a lot of security, blocking off certain areas,” he said.He said he’s particularly concerned that ...