Last night, Sunday November 3, 2024, vandals scrawled anti-Semitic graffiti and vandalized a table with a display celebrating Jewish and Israeli heritage just outside the Frosh Quad.
In an e-mail to the campus community, Jeff Palmer, Director of Campus Safety Services at Williams reported:
that multiple incidents of damage to a table representing Judaism and Israel heritage had occurred.
The legs of the table itself were broken multiple times. The table also contained an American and Israeli flag that were graffitied with multiple phrases and symbols, some of which were of an antisemitic nature.
This morning, President Maud S. Mandel followed up with a lengthier e-mail, now posted on the college website:
Everyone at the college was sent a Clery timely warning email last night about a hateful incident on campus. I am writing about this and other recent identity-based attacks on community members. We have to resist hatred in all its forms, and these latest incidents are evidence of why our work must continue.
Here is a summary of what has been reported to the administration:
In one case, a table painted with the U.S. and Israeli flags was placed outside on the Frosh Quad. Over several days the table was repeatedly flipped over and damaged. It was eventually defaced with graffiti that read, “Free Palestine,” “I love Hamas,” “F— Zionists,” “Colonizers,” “F— AmeriKKKa” and “Don’t claim rednecks.” The Star of David was also crossed out on the Israeli flag. After the graffiti was discovered, the table was subsequently flipped upside down and damaged one more time.
I also want to inform you that, on several occasions this semester, people in cars have yelled the N-word and other racial slurs at Black and other students crossing Route 2. During one of those incidents a person in the car also threw an empty plastic bottle at the students. Route 2, the main public thoroughfare through campus, has been a site of similar incidents in past years.
She noted that the Administration is taking a number of steps to “to address the events and support our community”, including:
Staff from Campus Safety, OIDEI, the Dean’s Office and the Chaplains’ Office are coordinating outreach to the students directly affected in these cases, as well as to wider communities of students with similar identities.
….If people from Williams are found to be responsible we will hold them to account through our campus conduct processes. If they are from outside the college community we will partner with local authorities, who decide whether any offenses can be prosecuted.
We are concerned about the objectivity of OIDEI (Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), given reports of anti-Israel bias among several administrators who work in that office. Not just that. Students (some now young alumni) fear that the students who disrupted an April 25, 2024 panel on the War in Gaza and the International Context may not have faced severe consequences for their actions (one received an award at commencement).
We believe that this vandalism is a serious transgression, a violation of the free speech rights of the students who set up the table. The college knows who the students were who disrupted the April panel. We would like to see confirmation that they were punished, if not identifying them by name, at least indicating the nature of the discipline. If the college discovers who vandalized the pro-Israel display, the administration must reassure us that they will be punished.
That action will confirm Maud’s strong condemnation of the heckler’s veto and deter others from shouting down – or otherwise disrupting – the free expression of other students, faculty, and visiting speakers.
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