Around 11:30 a.m. on day eight (May 2) of the anti-Israel encampment at the University of Pennsylvania, a couple of Jewish teens showed up and started talking to the protesters. Both groups began shouting back and forth at each other, then chanting and finally yelling obscenities.

A team of Philadelphia police officers and Penn campus cops separated the groups, erected barricades and stood in between more than 60 protesters and 10-15 counterprotesters on College Green in the heart of University City.

For the next hour plus, they kept going.

“The students, united, will never be defeated!” (They want Penn to disclose its financial investments and divest from companies profiting from Israel’s actions.)

“Am Yisrael Chai!”

This went on and on.

Around the encampment, students and residents walked by. Some wore graduation tassels and took pictures in front of campus buildings.

Penn’s graduation is set for May 20. The university has not given in to any of the protesters’ demands. The protesters claim they are not willing to compromise.

Yet even the media liaison for the encampment, a woman calling herself Nneka A, expects the university to “wait us out,” she said. The semester will end soon. Students will go home.

“They know people get tired,” Nneka A said. “I think they feel like they have leverage.”

The Philadelphia resident, who is not a Penn student, said the protesters would likely accept no compromise.

“I think disclosing how the university uses its funds, defunding sending money for weapons to be used…” she said.

She was asked if the university had sent money for weapons.

“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” she said. “We know that the university does receive funding from donors who are pro-Israel.”

Nneka A said there are students from Penn and Drexel in the encampment along with local organizers such as herself. She was the one talking to the media to help prevent Penn students from “being doxed,” or having their identities revealed.

The encampment had tents crowded together, tables with food and bookshelves. There were also Palestinian flags and signs that read, “UPENN, STOP ENGINEERING GENOCIDE” and “ANTI-ZIONISM ≠ ANTI-SEMETISM,” among other messages. At one point, a woman wrote “From the river to the sea, Palestine almost free,” a variation of the well-known call for eliminating Israel, in chalk on the bricks outside the encampment.

Sean Culley, a springboard fellow for the Greater Philly Hillel Network, showed up for the counterprotest. He wore his yarmulke and held up an Israeli flag. He said that protesters had made Nazi salutes at him.

“We’re here today to counter the hate that’s originating on Penn’s campus,” Culley said.

Hamas calls for annihilating the Jews in its founding charter.

“I’ll have to say no comment on that,” said Nneka A. “Anti-colonial struggle is a violent endeavor. It’s an imperfect struggle. Hamas has its stance. There are some things that us in the movement disagree with. That being said, Hamas is for the protection of the Palestinian people.”

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Later that day, the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” as organizers have called it, at Princeton University continued through its ninth day. Princeton officials have not allowed tents or overnight stays, so it’s not technically an “encampment.” But it is a field full of tarps, protesters and anti-Israel signs at Cannon Green in the middle of campus.

The protesters have the same demands as the protesters at Penn, even though Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber has said he is against divesting from companies associated with Israel. Princeton’s graduation is on May 28.

The protesters are students from Princeton and the Princeton Theological Seminary, according to organizers. Their signs say, “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA” and “FREE FREE PALESTINE.” Across the street, Tigers for Israel, a pro-Israel organization on campus, set up a seder table with pictures of the hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7.

One student was playing the role of “marshal” around the encampment. Wearing a marshal’s vest, her role was to talk to reporters and university police officers as necessary.

The senior said she would have enjoyed spending her final weeks having fun with her friends. But at the same time, “It’s kind of hard to have fun when children and thousands of people are dying in Gaza.”

“We will be here until those demands are met,” she said.

She also said that graduation festivities run through May, so she’ll stick around at least that long.

“It would be great if the university decided to meet with us. That would help move things along,” she added.

The senior also mentioned that she has a job lined up with an environmental nonprofit in New York City.

jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com