University launches investigation to identify perpetrators
An anti-Israel student group at Columbia University spray-painted school buildings and cemented sewage lines Wednesday to protest the death of a Palestinian girl who was killed by Israeli forces one year ago.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest spray-painted the walls and used a “cement-like substance” to clog the toilets in the women’s restrooms in the International Affairs Building, Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo stated in an email to the school, according to the Columbia Spectator.
Yarhi-Milo also called the incident “deplorable, disruptive and deeply unsettling.”
“We are working with law enforcement to investigate the incident and will take swift action. Vandalism of a University building in an attempt to disrupt our academic mission and intimidate or harass our community will not be tolerated,” the school wrote in a statement Wednesday.
BREAKING: CUAD “attacked two targets” @Columbia today, including filling toilets @ColumbiaSIPA with cement and vandalizing the bathroom with lewd references to administrators, as well as vandalizing the face of the Business school @Columbia_Biz. These disgusting acts honor no… pic.twitter.com/4SLouh63YU
— Columbia Jewish & Israeli Students ✡️🇮🇱 (@CUJewsIsraelis) January 30, 2025
The pro-Palestinian group Columbia University Apartheid Divest posted a video on Instagram showing the damage it did.
CUAD stated in the post’s caption that they were “inspired by Hind [Rajab] and the bravery of every Palestinian child who has resisted Israeli genocide over the past century.”
“One year ago, the world failed Hind,” the group stated. “But today and everyday we owe Hind, all our martyrs, and ourselves, action.”
“We attacked two targets at Columbia University. First, the Kravis Columbia School of Business, one of Columbia’s most recent violent gentrification projects into Harlem, the construction of which was conditioned on the creation of Columbia’s Apartheid Global Center in ‘Tel Aviv.’ We will not allow this land-grab to go unchallenged,” the group stated.
CUAD also “attacked the School of International and Public Affairs” because it was “the first Columbia institution to expel a student for their support for Palestinian liberation, currently run by a former ‘Israeli intelligence officer’ – Killer Keren.”
The group spray-painted a quote from Hind and “cemented the sewage lines of the entire building, forcing them to shut down business-as-usual,” CUAD stated.
The group also wrote:
We were afraid- to be arrested, suspended, and expelled; and that is exactly the point. The goal is not to be fearless, but to recognize that to be afraid is merely a symptom of our moral clarity. We are soberly aware of what we may lose if we act, and we are soberly aware of how much more we will lose if we don’t. The most severe consequence we could face today is not expulsion or prison time- it is the knowledge that we had the opportunity to act, and, instead, chose cowardice. The most severe consequence we could face is not only to have failed Hind one year ago, but to have continued to fail her today.
The university stated it is conducting an investigation to “identify the ‘individual perpetrators’ of the vandalism at SIPA and address their actions, according to a second statement published Wednesday evening,” the Columbia Spectator reported.
MORE: Columbia’s fall semester kicks off with vandalism, anti-Israel protest
IMAGE: cuapartheiddivest/Instagram
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