On October 16, 2023, Troutt Powell spoke at a rally in support of Hamas terrorist war crimes. The rally was held at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and titled: “Collective Walkout for Palestine.”
At the rally, Troutt Powell said [00:00:01]: “In everything that you’ve studied, students, have you ever heard of a people who stop fighting back? Has this ever happened in history?”
Troutt Powell continued [00:00:11]: “What has happened now is a firm assistance that we are supporting…governments cannot make peace with a genocidal government like the government in Israel right now…Palestinians cannot be forgotten. You don’t put them in an open-air prison and expect people to be quiet!”
Referring to Gaza as an “open-air prison” is a way to delegitimize the UN-approved [pp. 39–41] joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip imposed in 2011 to prevent Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated rockets. Following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the Israeli military discovered that Hamas went around the blockade by smuggling weaponry through tunnels under the Philadelphi corridor separating Gaza from Egypt.
Trout Powell reportedly “accused Israel of not learning ‘the lessons of the Holocaust,’ shouting, ‘That was the lesson! Never again! This now is never again!’”
The phrase “Never Again” is deployed as a general declaration against genocide, invoking the Nazis’ war of extermination against the Jews.
Trout Powell also referred to Penn president Liz Magill’s statement condemning Hamas, saying [00:00:30] that it “shows you have only been listening to some trustees and alums…This is our university, too!”
On October 15, 2023, Penn president Liz Magill issued a statement that said: “I, and this University, are horrified by and condemn Hamas’s terrorist assault on Israel and their violent atrocities against civilians. There is no justification…for these heinous attacks…I stand, and Penn stands, emphatically against antisemitism.”
On October 16, 2023, Penn professors and students staged a “walkout” in support of a Hamas invasion of Israel earlier that month, where Hamas murdered over 1,200 people and executed war crimes against civilians. One professor led [00:00:03] the chant: “When people are occupied, resistance is justified!” Palestinians and anti-Israel activists often use the term “resistance” as a euphemism for nationalistic terror and to glorify anti-Semitic violence.
Another professor claimed [00:00:07] Israel “desecrates the memory of the Nazi Holocaust” and “humiliates every Jewish person.” At least one speaker accused [00:00:48] Israel of “genocide.” Penn Against the Occupation (PAO) organized the protest, titled: “Collective Walkout for Palestine,” where participants walked out of classes to the rally on campus. The protest aimed to “protest the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and stand in solidarity with Palestine.”
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 2,900 heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation.
Hamas broadcast videos of their butchery on social media, often to victims’ accounts for families to see. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.” As of November 10, 2023, approximately 1,200 Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians, were murdered during the attacks. Hamas kidnapped 242 Israelis, including at least 30 children. At least 3,500 people were wounded, many severely.
A terrorist detained by Israel admitted he raped an Israeli woman when he broke into a kibbutz house during the October 7, 2023 attack. In March 2024, a former hostage of Hamas publicly stated she was sexually abused and tortured while in captivity.
For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
