Anti-Israel activists vandalized a Columbia University building and sabotaged the sewage lines of another building to commemorate the death of a Palestinian girl by Israeli forces in 2024.
The incident, marking the one-year anniversary, was documented in a video posted on social media by three activist groups. Columbia University has responded by collaborating with law enforcement to address the defacement which included targeted personal attacks.
The footage reveals the front of the Henry R. Kravis Hall building at Columbia University’s Business School in Manhattan being sprayed and painted over in red.
Henry R. Kravis Hall at the Columbia Business School campus in New York, on Sept. 8, 2022. Anti-Israel protesters say they spray-painted the front of a building on Wednesday. (Amir Hamja/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In the video, a gray watery substance is seen in a toilet.
“Early this morning, Columbia Business School’s main entrance was sprayed with red paint in an act of vandalism,” the university said in a statement. “Vandalism of a University building in an attempt to disrupt our academic mission and intimidate or harass our community will not be tolerated. We will provide updates as they become available.”
The three anti-Israel groups — the Palestine Solidarity Working Group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) and @nycresistswithgaza — bragged about the vandalism and wrote that they targeted the Henry R. Kravis Hall building because they say it is “one of Columbia’s most recent violent gentrification projects into Harlem.”
“The construction of which was conditioned on the creation of Columbia’s Apartheid Global Center in ‘Tel Aviv.’ We will not allow this land-grab to go unchallenged.”
They said that the SIPA building was targeted because it was the first Columbia institution to expel a student for their support for “Palestinian liberation,” which is run by Keren.
When a mob of anti-Israel protesters stormed the iconic Hamilton Hall academic building at the university in April during the campus protests, they rebranded it “Hind’s Hall,” after Rajab. The group unfurled a banner with “Hind’s Hall” emblazoned on it and at the time they described her as a “Gazan Martyr.”
Rajab was killed as she and her family were fleeing Gaza City when their vehicle was shelled.
The attack killed her uncle, aunt and three cousins, with Rajab and another cousin surviving. She contacted the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) to ask for help while noting that they were being attacked by an Israeli tank.
Students at Columbia University took over Hamilton Hall in April and rebranded it “Hind’s Hall” after HInd Rajab. (Getty Images/Alex Kent)
And then there was a burst of gunfire. She screamed and fell silent. But after the organization sent an ambulance, it lost contact with the crew.
Twelve days later, the ambulance was discovered, blackened and destroyed. The two medics were dead and Rajab. Her cousin also died.
The Palestinian Red Crescent accused Israeli forces of targeting the ambulance as it pulled up near the family’s vehicle. The organization said it had coordinated the journey with Israeli forces as in the past.
Wednesday’s incident came on the same day President Donald Trump ordered a law enforcement crackdown on antisemitism on college campuses, including removing pro-Hamas activists with student visas from the country,
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
