Anti-Israel activists vandalize home of Columbia president

Anti-Israel activists have vandalized the home of the interim president of Columbia University in New York. 

Photos posted on X on Friday by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD)—a disruptive group that has been banned from campus—show the side of Columbia Interim President Katrina Armstrong’s mansion covered in red paint and graffiti proclaiming “FREE THEM ALL.”

CUAD proclaimed that Armstrong’s residence has been “redecorated,” and added: “The people will not stand for @Columbia’s shameless complicity in genocide! The University’s repression has only bred more resistance, lighting a flame it can’t control.”

[RELATED: ‘LINE IN THE SAND’: Barnard College president publishes op-ed condemning unruly anti-Israel protesters who disrupted campus]

The group also threatened Armstrong, writing in the X post: “Katrina Armstrong you will not be allowed peace as you sic NYPD officers and ICE agents on your own students for opposing the genocide of the Palestinian people. “

The vandalism by the unknown protesters was potentially committed in response to the arrest of former Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, who played a significant role in the 2024 anti-Israel protests that rocked the Ivy League school’s campus. 

President Donald Trump’s administration is trying to deport Khalil, whom it has accused of “siding with terrorists.” 

The vandalism comes after the Trump administration removed $400 million in federal taxpayer dollars from Columbia, stating as its reason the university’s failure to respond to anti-Semitism on campus. 

On Thursday, administration officials sent a letter to Columbia, informing school leaders that they could potentially recover the lost funds if they agreed to make drastic changes at the school, including taking serious measures against disruptive protesters and making sure that future protests remain lawful and do not disrupt “teaching, research, and campus life.”

[RELATED: Anti-Israel Barnard College students occupy library, declare it a ‘liberated zone’]

CUAD–which, according to some, has been led by Khalil–has caused numerous controversies for Columbia in 2024.

In August, the group wrote that its members are “Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization.”

More recently, the group told its followers to “fight and escalate” after news broke of a planned ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. 

Campus Reform has reached out to Columbia University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.