A banned anti-Israel student group took credit Thursday for throwing red paint on the University of Pennsylvania’s Benjamin Franklin statue.
"Penn, your hands are red," Up Against the Occupation, which goes by (u)PAO, posted on Instagram hours after the vandalism. "You are complicit in the Palestinian genocide."
An "autonomous group" had vandalized the statue as a "visual reminder of the over 186,000 martyrs who have been murdered by the [Israel Occupation Forces] and the university’s complicity in this genocide," continued the post, which included photos and a video of the vandalism.
View this post on Instagram
Senior Noah Rubin, an orthodox Jew and former president of the Penn Israel Public Affairs Committee, demanded accountability.
"Actions must have consequences. Blatant support for terrorism has become common at Penn from students and professors," Rubin told the Washington Free Beacon. "The university must hold the vandals, and their supporters, accountable."
After Penn revoked its status as a registered student group in April, (u)PAO was forced to change its name from Penn Against the Occupation. The Office of Student Affairs said it "failed to comply with policies that govern student organizations at Penn, despite repeated efforts to engage with the group and to provide opportunities to resolve noncompliance." The move prohibited it from affiliating itself with Penn in any way, but the group continued to engage in anti-Israel protests.
In its Thursday post, (u)PAO called the Franklin statue "a symbol of imperial violence and colonialism." It was also the site of anti-Israel protests and an encampment that inflamed Penn’s campus after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks.
In April, "Zios Get Fuckt" was spray painted on the statue, relying on an anti-Semitic slur Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke coined. The statue was covered in keffiyehs and signs throughout the encampment. The Button, another signature statue on Penn’s campus, was also vandalized with anti-Israel sentiments in the spring, including "Penn Funds Genocide."
Columbia University, a fellow Ivy League school that was plagued with anti-Israel protests over the last school year, faced similar vandalism last week. On the first day of classes, its Alma Mater statue was defaced with red paint. Unity of Fields took credit for the incident and promised to bring violence to America.
Even after (u)PAO lost its status as a formal student group, it remained active in the Penn encampment before it was dismantled on May 10. Participants chanted, "Israelis are pigs. Pigs are haram," and threatened Jewish students. Interim president Larry Jameson prohibited encampments at Penn in June.
"The University has tried to suppress the student intifada and has turned a blind eye to the genocide-all in the name of ‘campus safety,’" (u)PAO wrote in its Thursday statement.
The anti-Israel group blamed Israel for Hamas’s attack days after Oct. 7 and incited protests on campus and across Philadelphia, repeatedly calling for an intifada. It also ran the "Freedom School," a sit-in at Penn’s student union, occupied a building, and supported the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, which included anti-Semite Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters.
Prominent Penn donors pulled funding over the administration’s handling of the anti-Israel incidents. Liz Magill was forced to resign as president after a disastrous testimony before the House Education and Workforce Committee. The university is also facing a lawsuit from Jewish students.
Neither Penn nor u(PAO) responded to a request for comment.