UMN president admits he signed document with alleged "extermination of Jews" rhetoric in it

ST. PAUL — University of Minnesota Interim President Jeff Ettinger appeared before the Minnesota Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety Tuesday afternoon at the Minnesota Senate building in St. Paul.

Along with negotiating with pro-Palestine protesters to stop its encampment, Ettinger admitted to signing an agreement that had a statement using a term allegedly "referencing Hamas’ foundational mission to exterminate Jews in Israel," although he admitted before the committee he hadn't realized what he had approved.

Ettinger's appearance comes as state lawmakers grapple with understanding the institution’s increase in antisemitic incidents after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing conflict overseas.

Minnesota’s flagship university saw roughly 170 bias incident reports during the 2023-24 academic year, a stark increase from the 55 reports in 2022-23, according to university data. Of these nearly 170 incidents, roughly one-third involved antisemitic rhetoric while Islamophobia contributed to one-fifth of the reports.

Minnesota Senate committee looks at UMNs actions during pro-Palestine protest

State lawmakers focused the conversation on how the university’s actions and responses to student activities impacted antisemitic rhetoric on campus. Specific topics included the university’s response to student protests, encampments, student negotiations and vandalism against Minnesota Hillel, a Jewish student organization on campus.

Some University of Minnesota students joined a national trend of calling for universities to divest from Israel and protesting Israel's response to the Israel-Hamas War, which occurred after Hamas attacked Israel and killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 people hostage. Protests spread nationwide in mid-April after arrests at institutions like Columbia University and Yale. Minnesota is unique in the fact it negotiated terms with protestors, joining Northwestern University and Brown University.

More: University of Minnesota negotiatesUniversity of Minnesota pro-Palestine encampment cleared, agreement reached

Minnesota Sen. and Committee Chair Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, expressed concerns about the precedent the university may have set for future student protests, showing disappointment in the university’s decision to drop criminal charges against the nine protesters arrested on April 23 for failing to abide by a dispersal order.

“I’m particularly concerned that the lack of sanctions for those who violated the law could encourage future disruptions,” Latz said. “It seems to me, this will only signal to future protesters that they can act with impunity, without facing any real sanctions.”

Ettinger said the university used its prosecutorial discretion to dismiss the criminal cases in an effort to balance its priorities — ensuring safety, supporting free speech, and adhering to the law and university policies.

He explained that if more students were arrested, it would have created a numbers game favoring the protesting students. He said a more forceful, police-heavy approach would have produced a different result, referencing the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s unsuccessful attempts where police intervention didn't end long-term demonstrations.

“In terms of addressing that law, these would need to be hands-on arrests with every arrest requiring two officers,” Ettinger said. “The officers need to leave the premises with the arrested person. You can quickly understand how soon you have a very diminished force.”

Ettinger, who holds a law degree from the University of California Los Angeles, said if Minnesota had an option to mail a citation or ticket to the alleged violator’s house, similar to a traffic citation, the university would have taken a more aggressive legal approach.

...it included an Arabic term referencing “Hamas’ foundational mission to exterminate Jews in Israel.”

Minnesota Sen. and Committee Chair Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park

More: Kleis and his town hallsSt. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis hosts 1,000th town hall, eyes Guinness World Record

The university also agreed not to press criminal charges against anyone resulting from the protest’s encampment. Protesters made an agreement with the university on May 2 to disband the encampment. The agreement with protesters included university officials facilitating conversations with career services to ban companies that do business with Israel from participating in gatherings like university career fairs and campus events and to provide details about the university's disclosures.

University president admits he signed document with alleged "extermination of Jews" rhetoric in it

When the university announced the agreement with the protesters, Latz said it included an Arabic term referencing “Hamas’ foundational mission to exterminate Jews in Israel.” Ettinger accepted responsibility for "the mistake," saying he didn’t know what the word meant and that the communication was drafted to meet students’ needs in a late-night frenzy.

“That was a mistake by our administration. The way things transpired that day, we ended up finalizing that document at 5 a.m.,” said Ettinger, former CEO of the Hormel Foods Corporation. “Those topics were characterized by the students as their demands. We looked at them as topics, but clearly, I didn’t even know what that word meant.”

Minnesota’s state legislature is not currently in session, and no official action can be taken based on Tuesday’s findings until it reconvenes in January.

Despite increased biased incident statistics, one member of the university’s Jewish community, Brandon Wagenfeld, said in his testimony that he didn’t experience antisemitic sentiments firsthand.

“There’s been an effort to suppress people like me into acting as though all Jewish students experience the same thing, and that all Jewish students are opposed to the protests and all the protesters are opposed to the Jewish students,” Wagenfeld said. “I think that does a huge disservice to both Jewish and Israeli people.”

Corey Schmidt covers local government for the St. Cloud Times. He can be reached at cschmidt@gannett.com.