Yale University said it is investigating an incident in which anti-Semitic graffiti was spray-painted into the snow on major campus quads, a university spokeswoman told the Washington Free Beacon.
The university declined to say whether it had video footage of the individuals who left the graffiti, which included the phrases “Intifida” and “IDF Die.” A Yale senior, Sahar Tartak, said on social media that “every gate” facilitating entrance onto the quad where the graffiti was found is “locked and recorded” by video surveillance.
“On Wednesday morning, messages that appear to have been spray-painted on the snow at Old Campus and Cross Campus were removed by the university, consistent with Yale’s policies on postering and chalking,” Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart said. Those policies preclude messages whose content is “harassing” or “threatening.”
The graffiti sparked condemnation from Jewish students, who argued it crossed the line between protected speech and harassment.
“Students are entitled to their beliefs,” Eytan Israel, a senior, told the Yale Daily News. “Students are not entitled to deface the University with messages of hate and violence.”