{"id":182873,"date":"2026-05-03T13:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T13:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/182873\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T13:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T13:53:08","slug":"swarthmore-college-sees-hundreds-of-acts-of-anti-israel-vandalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/182873\/","title":{"rendered":"Swarthmore College sees ‘hundreds of acts’ of anti Israel vandalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Swarthmore College suffered hundreds of acts of vandalism<\/a> across its campus on Friday, according to the administration and the local Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, as anti-Israel activists continued a campaign against the institution\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

Within a 30-minute window, around six activists allegedly defaced the campus with \u201chundreds of acts of vandalism,\u201d according to Swarthmore President Val Smith, mostly consisting of anti-Israel<\/a> slogans and symbols or messages targeting the college Board of Managers.<\/p>\n

Graffiti was spray-painted on buildings, trees, fences, and walkways, and while the college staff was working to remove the damage, Smith said in a Friday campus statement that the vandalism was \u201cso extensive and widespread\u201d that it could take days to remove. The vandalism on some surfaces may not be able to be removed for an \u201cextended period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graffiti in photographs published on Instagram by Swarthmore SJP showed instances of the red inverted triangles popularized by Hamas propaganda to denote a targeted enemy. \u201cFree Palestine,\u201d read the graffiti. \u201cFree Gaza<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DemonstratorsDemonstrators occupy a makeshift protest camp on Parish Beach at Swarthmore College on April 24, 2024 in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. (credit: Matthew Hatcher\/Getty Images)Vandalism was so extensive and widespread that it could take days to remove.<\/p>\n

Smith pledged that if students were found among the vandals, they would face immediate disciplinary action, including interim suspension.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am as disappointed as I am angry at these criminal acts of cowardice. These six or so individuals, who made their way across campus in the dead of night while fully disguised, chose to violate not just our policies and the law, but our sense of community,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that the ongoing violence in the Middle East continues to take an incalculable toll on members of our community, just as it does for individuals across the world. But the anger directed at the college is misplaced and ill-informed. While actions like those that occurred overnight may be designed to embarrass Swarthmore and generate views on social media, they serve no real productive purpose. They do not advance any cause or conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the graffiti attacked the college Board of Managers, which Swarthmore called for the dissolution of in its March 23 demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cBOM U [sic] can\u2019t hide,\u201d read Friday\u2019s graffiti. \u201cBoard of butchers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In December, Swarthmore SJP described the board as its \u201cgreatest enemy\u201d because they supposedly invested the college’s endowment in companies with relations to Israel and refused to divest from them. Swarthmore SJP called for the college to divest from and end contracts with Cisco Technologies and to \u201cfully divest all finances from companies profiting from \u2018Israeli apartheid and ongoing genocide.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDrop Cisco,\u201d read the graffiti. \u201cDivest<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SJP chapter has also called for all legal proceedings and disciplinary actions against anti-Israel activists, including for involvement with the campus protest encampment the previous year. On April 17, SJP dropped banners with similar messages in a Swarthmore building. They later complained on Instagram that the administration called police officers to remove the masked activists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more they try to silence us, the louder we will be. It is time to show Swarthmore that they can be held accountable,\u201d SJP said at the time. \u201cLong live the student intifada.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Swarthmore College suffered hundreds of acts of vandalism across its campus on Friday, according to the administration and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[81562,16062,51804,28,30,29,709],"class_list":["post-182873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-anti-israel","tag-antisemitism","tag-campus-antisemitism","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-vandalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}