Golda Meir Library repeatedly vandalized at UW-Milwaukee: PHOTOS
The Golda Meir Library at UW-Milwaukee was found vandalized with a broken window on Saturday morning.
This isn’t the first time the library was vandalized.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is grappling with an act of vandalism at the Golda Meir Library, which has sparked a police investigation.
Two individuals reportedly broke a window during the early hours of March 16 and proceeded to spray paint “Free Palestine” on the building’s facade, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.
This is not the first time the library has been vandalized. Photos obtained by Campus Reform, taken on March 1, show the building was previously defaced with pro-Palestinian graffiti.
Certain students have pushed for the library’s name to be changed, as the building is named after former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, reported Wisconsin Public Radio.
Meir holds a significant connection to Milwaukee, as she grew up in the city and later got her degree from the Milwaukee State Normal School, as UW-Milwaukee was then known, wrote Wisconsin Public Radio.
Responding to the vandalism, the school sent out an email that stated that “while UWM respects the right of free speech, this is neither speech nor peaceful protest, and UWM will not tolerate vandalism or other illegal acts.”
The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter at the school has been pushing for the library to be renamed, as well as for UW-Milwaukee to end all its connections to Israel.
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Though SDS claimed to have had no hand in the vandalism of the library, the group also declared: “SDS or any other organization cannot control the people’s reactions to having a building on campus dedicated to a racist, Zionist war criminal,” Fox 6 reported.
Anti-Semitic incidents have also recently been reported on other Wisconsin campuses.
On Jan. 29, Campus Reform reported that the Department of Education is investigating the University of Wisconsin-Madison regarding anti-Semitic incidents on campus, including one occasion on which protestors chanted “glory to the martyrs” shortly after the Oct. 7 massacre, seeming to praise the Hamas terrorists who carried out the attack.
Campus Reform has contacted UW-Milwaukee for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.