Workers at Yale University on Wednesday morning removed political messages painted in red on the snow at Cross Campus and Old Campus, reported the Yale Daily News.
Phrases such as "Free Palestine," "ICE Out," "Intifada," and "IDF Die" - the latter referring to the Israel Defense Forces - were among the graffiti visible on campus. By late morning, the messages were cleared from the snow.
Campus Rabbi Alex Ozar called the graffiti “violent" and “simply unacceptable language" in a message sent to the Slifka Center for Jewish Life email list. Uri Cohen, the executive director of the Slifka Center, described the painted messages as “harmful and threatening" to Yale’s Jewish community in an email to the Yale Daily News.
Tina Posterli, a Yale spokesperson, explained that the messages were removed in accordance with Yale’s policies on postering and chalking.
Cohen noted that several Yale students and faculty members have served in the Israeli military and stated that the graffiti was perceived as “a direct personal attack" on those individuals, as well as on Jewish Yalies' family members and friends in Israel, where military service is mandatory. Cohen referred to the term "intifada" as "a direct and personal threat" to the Jewish community.
Cohen also addressed the broader implications of the incident, writing, “The Jewish community has thousands of years of experiences of suffering from threats, persecutions, and violence. This morning’s incident is just the latest in a long string of attacks and attempts to make Jews feel and be unsafe, and we stand against it."
In response to the graffiti, Cohen emphasized that the Jewish community must continue to celebrate its culture and support those who feel emotionally targeted.
Campus antisemitism has been on the rise in the US since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel. Yale has been among the campuses to have seen an uptick in anti-Israel activities.
During an anti-Israel protest in 2024, a Jewish Yale student journalist was stabbed in the eye with a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flag.
Last April, Yale College, the undergraduate college of Yale University, rescinded the registration of Yalies4Palestine as a recognized student organization, citing the group's promotion of a protest that unfolded days earlier.