The Tufts Daily - Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Page 1

Ariana Grande’s new album a success despite controversy see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 4

HOUSING

Tufts increased enrollment strains community housing

Jumbos splash into championship season, prepare for NESCAC title defense see Sports/ back page

SEE FEATURES / PAGE 3

THE

INDEPENDENT

STUDENT

N E W S PA P E R

OF

TUFTS

UNIVERSITY

E S T. 1 9 8 0

T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXVII, ISSUE 15

tuftsdaily.com

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Posters with incendiary images, anti-Israel messages deface Tufts Hillel

COURTESY NAFTALI BRAWER

A poster bearing images of pigs and an anti-Israel caption that appeared at Hillel is pictured on Feb. 12.

by Daniel Nelson

Investigative Editor

Flyers depicting militarized pigs, including at least one with a caption calling for the destruction of “ISRAELI APARTHEID FORCES AND AMERIKKKAN [sic] PIGS WHICH FUND IT,” were discovered yesterday morning on the exterior of Granoff Family Hillel Center. Over two dozen posters were found, according to Rabbi Naftali Brawer, Tufts Hillel’s Neubauer executive director and the campus Jewish chaplain, who saw the posters when he arrived at the center shortly before 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning. He contacted Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) after he and other Hillel staff members removed the posters from the building. These posters come days after tweets by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) sparked a national discussion over what constitutes anti-Semitism. On Sunday, Omar tweeted that American political leaders’ support of Israel is “all about the Benjamins.” Democratic House leadership condemned the tweets as anti-Semitic. On Monday, Omar tweeted that she “unequivocally apologize[s].” The cartoons reproduced on the posters do not have explicitly anti-Semitic origins. Meant to disparage American military imperialism and the police state, the trio of political car-

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toons originated in the Oakland, Calif.-based Black Panther Party in the late 1960s, and were first published in the Party’s publication, “The Black Panther.” But their targeted placement at Hillel shocked campus Jewish leaders as a direct affront to the Jewish community. Similar posters had not been found anywhere else on campus as of press time. In an interview with the Daily, Brawer described how some of the signs were pasted on the Hillel windows facing inwards, as if to send a message “to those inside the building.” “We were clearly targeted as a Jewish center,” he said. The posters represent the latest instance in a rising trend of anti-Semitic acts on American college campuses, Robert Trestan, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Boston office, said in an interview with the Daily. Trestan explained that many instances of campus anti-Semitism have not taken place on or around Jewish institutions. In the past at Tufts, anti-Semitic symbols appeared in Lewis Hall in 2014 and on Packard Ave. in 2015. Trestan called the posters at Tufts “unique” because of their placement exclusively on the Hillel building. “I think what makes this one unique and particularly upsetting is that [the posters] targeted the Jewish community at Tufts,” he said.

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“The fliers were targeting the Jewish students at Tufts in the place where they feel safest and most welcome: the Hillel building.” University officials did not explicitly label the posters as anti-Semitic or anti-Zionist on Tuesday. In an email sent to the Tufts community shortly after 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, University President Anthony Monaco described the incident as an affront to campus culture. “The derogatory images and symbolism in these posters were profoundly disturbing and hurtful to those targeted and to others in our community,” Monaco said at the time. “Our Jewish students, faculty, and staff, and all those who participate in Hillel programs, have my support as members of our community.” He announced that the university would conduct an investigation into the matter. Tufts’ Executive Director of Public Relations Patrick Collins confirmed in an email to the Daily that the Office of the President was not aware that at least one poster included an anti-Israel statement when he issued his initial statement on Tuesday. “After President Monaco issued his statement to the community this afternoon, we became aware of additional information on one of the flyers that heightens our concern about this disturbing incident,” Collins said in an email to the Daily. “We will refer this addi-

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tional information for further investigation.” Brawer did not initially know that at least one of the posters called for the destruction of “Israeli Apartheid forces.” He only learned, and subsequently confirmed this, after being informed by the Daily. Some student leaders called the action anti-Semitic. Tufts Friends of Israel (FOI) co-president Ben Shapiro, a junior, and Annika Witt, FOI’s director of outreach, a sophomore, said the posters were offensive and misguided. “Holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the State of Israel is blatantly anti-Semitic, and is defined as such by the State Department and the Department of Education,” they said in a joint statement provided in an electronic message to the Daily. “If we want to fight oppression and bigotry, especially on campus, we must call it what it is: anti-Semitism.” Talia Inbar, regional co-chair of J Street U and former co-chair of the Tufts chapter, similarly condemned “manifestations of anti-Semitism and white supremacy on our campus.” Inbar, a senior, echoed FOI’s statement that the actions of Israel cannot be held against all Jews. She also called the posters a distraction to serious dialogue.

NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................3 ARTS & LIVING.......................4

see POSTERS, page 2

FUN & GAMES.........................5 OPINION.....................................6 SPORTS............................ BACK


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