In the wake of the public outcry following the shocking failure of the presidents of “elite” universities to unequivocally condemn calls for the genocide of the Jewish people, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill posted a video statement on Wednesday. Magill said, among other things, that she “should have been focused on the irrefutable fact that a call for the genocide of the Jewish people is a call to the most terrible violence that human beings can perpetrate.” Several social media users commented that Magill’s scripted statements reminded them of “hostage videos.” Many people are demanding the resignation of Magill, along with Harvard President Claudine Gay and MIT President Sally Kornbluth. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik responded to the video by stating: “This pathetic PR clean-up attempt by Penn shockingly took over 24 hours to try to fix the moral depravity of the answers under oath yesterday. And there was not even an apology. By the way, the questions were asked over and over and over again. No statement will fix what the world saw and heard yesterday. There is zero question that the world knows that the only answer is for Penn to deliver accountability and bring in new leadership immediately.” Yad Vashem issued a statement saying: “The positions taken by the three university presidents in their testimonies highlight a basic ignorance of history, including the fact that the Holocaust did not start with ghettos or gas chambers, but with hateful antisemitic rhetoric, decrees and actions by senior academics, among other leaders of society.” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla stated: “I was ashamed to hear the recent testimony of three top university presidents. In my personal opinion, it was one of the most despicable moments in the history of U.S. academia. The three presidents were offered numerous opportunities to condemn racist, antisemitic, hate rhetoric and refused to do so hiding behind calls for ‘context.’ The memories of my father’s parents, Abraham and Rachel Bourla, his brother David, and his little sister Graciela, who all died in Auschwitz, came to mind. I was wondering if their deaths would have provided enough ‘context’ to these presidents to condemn the Nazis’ antisemitic propaganda.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)