The sidewalks of Cornell University’s upstate New York campus were defaced with anti-Israel and antisemitic graffiti on Wednesday just days after a professor from Ivy League college had described the Hamas attack as “energizing.”
The campus was spray-painted with messages such as “Zionism equals Racism”, “Israel is Fascist” and “f**k Israel” amid a heated campus row over the Israel-Hamas war. This defacement comes days after Professor Russell Rickford of Cornell took a leave of absence after his comments on Hamas’ brutal attack.
The graffiti written in red and white on Campus Road, which has since been cleaned up, was first noticed just on Wednesday morning, UK’s Daily Mail reported. It comes after Rickford told an October 15 rally in upstate New York, that he was thrilled by Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, in which 1,400 Israelis were killed, the report added.
Rickford’s words sparked outrage and led to his decision to take a leave of absence. In a lengthy letter, he seemed to reinforce his earlier remarks. The incidents come amid the growing divide in US university campuses amid the support of Israel and Palestine.