University Concludes Bennett Event Investigation with No Further Action

Princeton University has concluded its investigation into protests at an April 7 event featuring former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, finding that there were violations of the University’s Policy on Discrimination and/or Harassment but not identifying anyone at fault in the University community.

The event in McCosh 10 was cut short due to protesters’ disruptions and a fire alarm, though many attendees finished the evening with a rousing pro-Israel singalong. The day after Bennett’s visit, President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 publicly apologized to the former prime minister and the University announced it was investigating the disruptions.

According to a May 21 statement from the University on the findings of the investigation, one “non-University individual who engaged in a loud, two-minute exchange” with Bennett was barred from campus, and the Department of Public Safety is continuing to investigate who pulled the fire alarm, but so far, a perpetrator has not been identified. Disruptors who loudly chanted as they left the room were found not to have violated policy.

No one could be identified and therefore held responsible for antisemitic remarks made outside the building, as it was dark and the protesters concealed their identities, according to the University’s statement; the statement added, however, that they “were likely unaffiliated with the University.”

The investigation was conducted by the University’s Investigations Unit and an external investigator.

Weeks later, when Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, spoke in the same room, flood lights illuminated the courtyard outside. There were also additional barriers and an increased security presence at that event.

In the weeks following Bennett’s visit, Princeton sent an email to the University community announcing that only a single warning will be given in future for disruptive behavior before attendees will be removed from spaces and potentially face disciplinary actions. The University also launched a new website for faculty on events and updated its Protests and Free Expression website.

The statement on Princeton’s investigation said University administrators “will participate in educational programs on antisemitism and religious pluralism.”

There were no disruptions at the Leiter event, which the University wrote that it sees as a sign that “strengthened enforcement policies are working.”

Read the University’s full statement: