Students returning from winter break to the Harvard campus were greeted by the sight of posters of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza that had been defaced with antisemitic graffiti.
A poster of 70-year-old New York native Judith Weinstein Haggai, shows her glasses shaded in black.
Some of the graffiti referenced conspiracy theories such as claiming that Jews were responsible for the Islamist terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 that killed 3,000 Americans. Other graffiti read, “I knew Epstein personally”, referencing Hollywood sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein who was born Jewish. Epstein died while awaiting trial in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019.
“I’m blind and even I can see Israel did 9/11,” reads a message covering her head.
A poster of Noa Argamani, the 26-year-old who was kidnapped from the SuperNova music festival is defaced with the message, ““Google the dancing Israelis”, referencing a conspiracy theory claiming that the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, was behind the 9/11 attacks.
A poster of Kfir Bibas who turned one year old last week was defaced with the message, ““Head still on.” This is a reference to evidence that several babies were beheaded in the October 7 massacre. It was reported this week that Sgt. Adir Tahar, 19, who died on the day of the Hamas invasion on Oct. 7 while defending an IDF post on the border of the Gaza Strip, was beheaded. A Hamas terrorist admitted to Israeli interrogators that he tried to sell the decapitated head of an IDF soldier for $10,000.
Harvard Divinity School student Alexander “Shabbos” Kestenbaum shared images on X of how “every single Jewish hostage poster on campus has been defaced with vile antisemitism.”
“Jews are neither safe nor welcomed at Harvard,” he claimed
Harvard condemned the vandalization on Tuesday and said university police are investigating the incident.
“The University strongly condemns the senseless and horrific vandalization on Harvard’s campus of posters displaying the faces of Israeli hostages,” a university spokesperson told CNN in a statement.
The defaced posters were removed but it is unclear whether they were replaced.
Harvard is currently being sued by six Jewish students alleging that the University has failed to address “severe and pervasive” antisemitism on campus. “Harvard, America’s leading university, has become a bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment,” the complaint states.
At least two pro-Palestine protests on campus have resulted in disciplinary action. In November, a group of pro-Hamas students, some of whom were Jewish, occupied University Hall in a 24-hour protest organized by Harvard Jews for Palestine. It remains unclear if the students will face disciplinary action for the protest.
Harvard’s former president Dr. Claudine Gay resigned earlier this month amid plagiarism accusations and criticism over her testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say unequivocally that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy. She later apologized.
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