Penn State investigating vandalism at campus memorial for Palestinians in Gaza
Penn State said Tuesday it launched an investigation after viral videos posted online showed students defacing a memorial meant to honor Palestinians in Gaza who were killed during the Israel-Hamas war.
The university wrote in a statement that it was “saddened by the hateful actions and destruction” carried out by students on the HUB lawn.
“This type of behavior has no place on our campuses or anywhere in our society,” the university wrote. “We firmly denounce all forms of hate and hurtful, biased and racist speech meant to denigrate and insult any group of individuals.”
In one video, students can be seen removing flags and riding bicycles through the memorial. The flags were no longer on the HUB lawn Wednesday.
Each of the 18,600 flags were planted Thursday by Penn State Students for Justice in Palestine, a group that said it viewed the sullying of the memorial as an attempt to “intimidate and silence voices advocating for Palestinians.”
“We are enraged by the level of disrespect towards human life shown by these Penn State students,” the organization’s executive board wrote in a press release. “We believe those responsible for these actions should be held accountable and this behavior condemned.”
The Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations — the largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization in the U.S. — backed the student organization in a written statement Tuesday.
“We are deeply troubled by this incident, which is a clear attempt to stifle the voices of those standing in solidarity with Palestine,” CAIR-Philadelphia Legal Directory Adam Alaa Attia said. “This act reflects a growing trend of intolerance and hostility toward Muslim and pro-Palestinian students, who deserve the same rights and protections as any other student group on campus.”
Messages left Wednesday with Jewish student organization Penn State Hillel, which was mentioned in the social media video, were not immediately returned.
Put together with a recent increase of bias reports on campus and hateful comments online about the turmoil in the Middle East, tensions appear to be rising at University Park.
Penn State received about three times as many bias reports last week as it did the week before, university spokesman Wyatt DuBois wrote Monday in an email to the Centre Daily Times.
”Antisemitic, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim comments have no place at Penn State and do not at all align with the University’s values,” the university wrote in a statement shared Sunday.
In its own statement Sunday, Penn State Hillel wrote that since the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks through Yom Kippur, a number of Jewish students at the university experienced hateful, antisemitic incidents.
“Penn State Hillel is deeply concerned by these incidents, including malicious social media activity, aimed at doxing Jewish students, which can compromise their physical safety, among other things,” the statement read. “We condemn these attempts to publicly intimidate students and members of our Jewish community.”
Penn State’s investigation into the flag memorial vandalism is being carried out by its Office of Student Accountability and Conflict Response. Any student found to be in violation of the university’s student code of conduct “will be held accountable for their actions,” the university wrote.
“We have the deepest empathy for all in our community who are experiencing pain over the complex tragedy unfolding in the Middle East,” Penn State wrote. “During this particularly tumultuous time in our world, there is significant disagreement and greatly varied perspectives. However, the pain and struggles of others do not diminish our own — recognizing this fact deepens our shared humanity.”
Israel’s yearlong offensive in Gaza, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused widespread destruction.
Hundreds have been taken hostage, tens of thousands more people were wounded and nearly two million people have been displaced in Gaza, according to figures gathered by the Associated Press.