Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has remained silent on whether professors or student groups who support Palestine amid Hamas’ attack on Israel should be given taxpayer funding.
Temple University’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) held a “Philly: Emergency Solidarity Rally” on October 8 in support of Palestine. The student group also told its followers to wear their keffiyehs — a traditional Arab headdress — on the public university’s campus Thursday to signal their solidarity with Palestinians. (RELATED: Dem Rep Renounces Membership In Socialist Org After Pro-Hamas Rally)
The organization’s official web page listed Alexa Firat as the faculty advisor. Firat serves as a professor in the college of liberal arts at Temple University.
Firat is also featured on the Palestine Writes Literature Festival’s website. She also served as the editor of “Generations of Dissent: Intellectuals, Cultural Production, and the State in the Middle East and North Africa,” a book which documents the political dissidence of different uprisings in the Middle East.
The Daily Caller reached out to the Pennsylvania governor to ask if such university groups or professors should be funded with taxpayer dollars. The governor did not respond to The Daily Caller’s request for comment.
Shapiro publicly condemned Hamas’ attacks Wednesday. He said there was “no moral equivalency” between Israel and Hamas and urged his fellow Pennsylvanians to stand behind Israel.
“We need to stand with Israel. We need to stand up against this type of terror. We cannot allow this anywhere in the Middle East or anywhere in our area,” Shapiro said.