Anti-Israel activists vandalize Ben Franklin statue at UPenn, call it ‘symbol of imperial violence and colonialism’

Campus Reform ^ | 09/16/2024 | Patrick McDonald

[DFG]

Anti-Israel activists at the University of Pennsylvania vandalized the Benjamin Franklin statue on campus to protest against the school’s connections to the Jewish state.

The group Up Against the Occupation, or (u)PAO, posted pictures to Instagram on Thursday showing a statue of the American Founder doused in red paint. The group called the statue “a symbol of imperial violence and colonialism.”

The organization wrote that an “autonomous group” had “poured red paint over the statue” as a “visual reminder of the over 186,000 martyrs and the university’s complicity in genocide.” The group wrote: “Penn, your hands are red,” and condemned the school as being “complicit in the Palestinian genocide.”

The post additionally criticized the university administration for suppressing the “student intifada.”

“The University has tried to supress [sic] the student intifada, supressing [sic] Palestinian voices, all in the name of ‘campus safety,’” the group posted. “There are NO Universities left in Gaza. There are NO first days. The education system of Gaza has been systematically destroyed, and the genocide has only expanded.”

“Intifada” is a term for campaigns of violence against Israeli civilians. Anti-Israel activists routinely use the term as a rallying cry.

[redangus]

No but I think destruction of public property is a crime and I think if you destroy public property in an act of vandalism there should be consequences. All the asshole who burned our cities in 2020 should also have been jailed and made to pay restitution to the property owners affected.