Anti-Israel vandals defaced a Cornell University building on the first day of classes Monday, smashing glass in doorways and scrawling hateful messages such as “Blood is on your hands.”
“We were forced to accept that the only way to make our voices heard was to target the only thing the university authorities really cared about – their property,” the vandals said. Anonymous statement He spoke to the Cornell Daily Sun, the student newspaper, which broke the news.
The vandals struck in the middle of the night or early morning, smashing the glass at the entrance to Cornell’s Day Hall and spray painting messages such as “Israel Bombs, Cornell Pays Reparations.”
“As the new semester begins, Cornell administration is desperately trying to maintain a semblance of normalcy, knowing that since last semester they have worked tirelessly to maintain Cornell’s function as a fascist, classist, imperialist institution,” the activists said.
Joel M. Malina, vice president for university relations, said those responsible “will be subject to suspension and/or criminal prosecution.”
“We are appalled that the front entrance to Day Hall was spray-painted with graffiti overnight, resulting in broken glass,” Marina said in a statement. “Any acts of violence, prolonged occupation of buildings or damage to property (including graffiti) will not be tolerated and public safety officials will respond immediately.”
Cornell Law Professor William A. Jacobson said the crime sent a message at the start of the semester.
“Given Cornell’s weak response to intimidation tactics by anti-Israel activists last year, it is not surprising that they have stepped up their aggression at the start of the new semester with acts of vandalism and property damage,” said Jacobson, founder of EqualProtect.org. “This bodes ill.”
The incident came the same day Gov. Kathy Hockle was scheduled to meet virtually with college presidents across New York state to discuss campus safety, as officials worry about a repeat of recent semesters marked by lawless protests and unrest at higher education institutions.
The school’s often inadequate response led to accusations that leaders had encouraged anti-Semitism and allowed campus demonstrations to escalate into violence, and several prominent administrators resigned in the face of intense scrutiny.
Cornell University’s leafy Ithaca campus has seen protests for a second semester in response to the Gaza conflict, which began with Hamas attacks on Israel in October.
Last fall, Cornell University student Patrick Dye, 22, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for posting anti-Semitic death threats on a university website and bizarrely claiming he did so solely to “gather sympathy” for Jews and draw attention to Hamas atrocities.
Cornell University’s former president, Martha Pollack, announced her resignation last May amid a furor that included a history professor describing the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel as “exhilarating” and “energizing.”
But a New York university official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said continuing unrest on campus was not surprising given the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip.
“There is no ceasefire. The war is on,” the source said, likening the sustained protests to the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations of the 1960s and early 1970s.
