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Vandals Deface University COO’s Home With Hamas Symbols, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Responds

PALESTINIAN ISRAEL CONFLICT

(Photo by HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images)

Ilan Hulkower Contributor
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Vandals spray painted inverted red triangles Thursday morning on the apartment building where Columbia University COO Cas Holloway lives, the New York Post reported.

Hamas has employed the inverted red triangle symbol in its propaganda videos to identify Israeli military targets for the organization to try to kill.

The vandals also released live crickets and mealworms into the lobby of the apartment complex and broke a glass door, the New York Post reported, citing New York police. The vandals plastered posters outside of the building that denounced Holloway for his handling of anti-Israel protests at Columbia University, the outlet noted.

“Did you enjoy our present? Did it make you uncomfortable? What you felt was incomparable to the pain you made Columbia students feel when you signed off on their brutalization because they stood against the genocide of Palestinian,” the sign read. “P.S. Even when the crickets are gone from your apartment, the memory will remain.”

“They are protesting all these institutional investments in Israel — that’s what they say it is. It’s not helping the situation,” one tenant told the New York Post. The tenant added that these antics did not scare her but only angered her.

A Columbia University spokesperson said the college “unequivocally condemns vandalism, threats, and personal attacks” and vowed that “appropriate discipline” would be meted out should anyone be caught “engaging in such activity.” (RELATED: Alvin Bragg’s Office Drops Charges Against Nearly All Columbia Protesters)

Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul responded to the antisemitic incident.

“Hateful, antisemitic displays like this will not be tolerated in New York, and the perpetrators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” Hochul tweeted Thursday. She said that the hate crimes division of the state police was activated to assist in the investigation of the incident.

“Red triangles were also used by Nazis to tag Jewish and other prisoners in concentration camps during the Holocaust. This disgusting and despicable act is straight out of the 1930’s Nazi playbook,” Mark Treyger, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, tweeted.

Three Columbia University deans resigned later Thursday due to a scandal revolving around them sending texts that evoked “ancient antisemitic tropes,” The New York Times reported.