Interim University of Minnesota president Jeff Ettinger told the Minnesota state senate in a hearing Tuesday that, though he did not understand Arabic-language terminology in a statement endorsing a Palestinian right of resistance and Palestinian ownership of Jerusalem, he signed it anyway to appease student activists.
“That was a mistake by our administration. The way things transpired that day, we ended up doing the final versions of that document at 5 in the morning, those had been the topics — I mean they were kind of characterized, honestly, by the students as their ‘demands’ — we looked at them as topics,” Ettinger said. “But clearly, I didn’t even know what that word meant, so clearly to repeat that word then in a communication back was a mistake by the administration.”
The word in the document, “Thawabit,” translates to “fundamental principles” and refers to the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s demands, which include the right to (violent) resistance, the right to self-determination (Palestinian statehood) with Jerusalem as the capital, and the right of Palestinian refugees to return en masse to the land of Israel.
The hearing convened because of Ettinger’s role as one of the first university leaders in the country to strike a deal with anti-Israel encampment organizers.
The terms of that agreement, as outlined in the document referenced in the hearing, included reviewing the university’s ties to Israeli entities or companies that do business within Israel, asking students to “provide specific information on departmental or other affiliations with Israeli universities” in exchange for a report on “the status of those agreements,” and recommending to campus police “that they not arrest or charge anyone for a criminal offense based on activities” that occurred during the period of time in which the encampment stood.
The University of Minnesota has faced several issues relating to antisemitism over the past academic year.
Earlier in June, the university’s Hillel building was vandalized. The school listed a professor as a finalist for the university’s top diversity, equity, and inclusion post who claimed Hamas terrorists did not commit any acts of sexual violence on October 7 and had been seen on campus chanting “Globalize the intifada.” Additionally, it is one of many universities under investigation by the Department of Education for its failure to address antisemitism on its campus.