University of Michigan anti-Israel activists desecrate memorial to Jewish family murdered by Hamas terrorists
The vandalism was condemned as mocking the memories of the slain Jewish family.
The incident is the latest in a series of controversies at the university over anti-Semitism.
Anti-Israel activists vandalized a memorial at the University of Michigan dedicated to a Jewish family recently murdered by Hamas.
The University of Michigan campus features a boulder named “The Rock” that students routinely paint over with different messages and designs. On Feb. 24, students covered The Rock with the names of Shiri, Kfir, and Ariel Bibas–a mother along with her 9-month and 4-year old sons–who were executed by Hamas terrorists.
The memorial to the Bibas family also featured a painted Israeli flag.
Shortly afterward, however, activists desecrated the memorial, blocking the names of the murdered Bibas family members with graffiti, and spraying “Free Palestine” and an inverted red triangle on The Rock.
The inverted red triangle has been called a hate symbol, and, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADF), it “first appeared in propaganda videos promoted by the al-Qassam brigades, the military wing of Hamas, which showed footage of Hamas terrorists attacking Israeli military targets indicated with an inverted red triangle.” The ADF states that the symbol “is now used to represent Hamas itself and glorify its use of violence.”
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The Rock’s vandalism sparked backlash from community members and others who called on the university’s administrators to take action.
Alexander Richmond, a Senator at the University of Michigan Student Government and Campus Reform correspondent, told Campus Reform that the graffiti found on The Rock is representative of the broader trend of anti-Semitism that Jewish students face on college campuses.
“I am left unsurprised that even a kind gesture of reverence, a memorial honoring the lives and memories of three Israeli Hostages, has been defaced by pro-Palestinian protesters . . . The upside-down triangle, in particular, is a symbol that has been popularized by Hamas in the last few years,” Richmond stated.
“The fact that there are members of the Michigan community and even the student body who identify with this is concerning to say the least. I would go as far to say that this act is a mere microcosm of the broader issue that Jewish and other Zionist students face on campuses across the country today,” he added.
Adar Rubin, Director of Mobilization of the nonprofit End Jew Hatred, took to X to denounce “the depravity of this hate movement [that] runs so deep that they will literally erase any reminder of the line that was crossed by Hamas on Oct 7th.”
Rubin also called on the University’s president, Santa Ono, to break silence and condemn the vandalism.
“I call on @SantaJOno to forcefully denounce this, and mobilize every resource available to identify the individual responsible for desecrating a memorial to the Bibas family,” Rubin wrote.
The desecration of the Bibas memorial follows a string of other anti-Semitic controversies at the University of Michigan.
The Department of Justice could potentially launch an investigation of the school regarding complaints the school has become a toxic workplace for Jewish workers,
In December, the university fired a DEI administrator for allegedly making anti-Semitic remarks.
School Regent Jordan Acker has also been repeatedly targeted by anti-Israel activists who vandalized both his home and his law firm, spraying anti-Israel messages.
The University of Michigan was also the scene of a showdown in the student government, when anti-Israel activists of the “Shut It Down” Party repeatedly blocked budgets as part of their goal to divest from Israel. The party leaders were eventually impeached and kicked out of the student government for “dereliction of duty.”
Campus Reform has contacted the University of Michigan for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.
