Israeli hostage posters at that were hung up on Harvard University’s campus have been vandalized with antisemitic messages. The occurrence makes for the latest incident of antisemitism at the Ivy League school.
Harvard students returned from winter break to find anti-Jew messaging on posters hung up around campus, according to a report by CNN.
“The University strongly condemns the senseless and horrific vandalization on Harvard’s campus of posters displaying the faces of Israeli hostages,” a Harvard spokesperson told the outlet. The Harvard University Police Department is reportedly investigating the incident.
Footage of the posters shared with CNN showed multiple flyers with the words, “Israel did 9/11” scrawled onto them. Another posted showing a four-year-old Israeli hostage was defaced. A third hostage poster had the words, “LIES FAKE” written on it.
The vandalized posters were reportedly found outside Holworthy Hall, a first-year student dorm.
Harvard student Alexander Kestenbaum, who was one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit recently filed against the university over antisemitism, told university officials of the defaced posters found on campus on Sunday night, according to emails the student shared with CNN.
Harvard’s Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (OEDIB) responded to Kestenbaum in an email on Monday, telling the student that officials are investigating the matter.
The Harvard spokesperson told CNN that there is currently “no indication” of whether or not the culprits are students or outsiders that visited campus.
While the identities of the perpetrators remain unclear, Harvard is no stranger to antisemitic scandals, as the school has been engulfed in unabashed acts of antisemitism on campus in recent months, amid a general widespread rising of anti-Jew rhetoric on college campuses across the U.S. in the wake of October 7 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel.
Notably, Harvard’s ousted president, Claudine Gay — alongside the presidents of two other prestigious universities — at a recent congressional hearing infamously declined to say whether advocating for the genocide of Jews is permissible on campus.
This came after more than 30 Harvard student groups signed a pro-terror joint statement in response to the terrorist attack against Israel.
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