Even before the Palestine Writes Literature Festival started, UPenn leaders acknowledged it would include speakers with a history of making antisemitic remarks. “You are forcing me to reexamine my financial support absent satisfactory measures to address antisemitism at the university,” Lauder wrote. The Palestine Writes festival has created a backlash that prominent donors, including billionaire Marc Rowan and former US Ambassador Jon Huntsman, who have vowed to cut off funding. “We know who they are and what they did.”Magill, UPenn’s president, conceded over the weekend that the response to the Palestine Writes Literature Festival was inadequate. Talk about resistance, talk about politics and power and culture and song and books and food and all of these things,” Susan Abulhawa, executive director of the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, told CNN.

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Persons: Ronald Lauder, Lauder, UPenn, “, ” Lauder, Liz Magill, Marc Rowan, Jon Huntsman, Rowan, Magill, Vahan Gureghian, ”, ” Magill, Susan Abulhawa Organizations: New, New York CNN, University of Pennsylvania, CNN, Daily, Forbes, World Jewish Congress, UPenn, Lauder Institute, Wharton, Department of Arts and Sciences, The Lauder Institute, UPenn’s, Penn, “, University Locations: New York, Palestinian, Israel, Palestine, Austria, Philadelphia, American