by Aaron Bandler
This “serves as yet another example of how hostile campuses have become for Jewish faculty and students,” Samantha Joseph, of the ADL, told JNS.
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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. Credit: d97jro/Pixabay. |
An anti-Israel group vandalized a building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., on Sunday, the Anti-Defamation League announced.
According to the ADL, the Direct Action Movement for Palestinian Liberation claimed responsibility for graffitiing the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory building with “DAMPL” and “Death to the IOF,” the latter being a potential acronym for “Israeli Occupation Forces,” a term used to delegitimize the Israel Defense Forces.
DAMPL is a “relatively new extreme anti-Zionist group,” according to the ADL. “Up until now, they have maintained a mostly online presence promoting extremism, but recently, they claimed responsibility for in-person vandalism activities in Massachusetts.”
Talia Khan, a graduate student at MIT and president of the university’s Israel Alliance chapter, posted screenshots to social media showing that DAMPL was targeting the office entrance of Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL.
According to the message shared by Khan, the anti-Israel group said Rus was working on a project funded by the Israeli Ministry of Defense to develop artificial intelligence for “surveillance systems technology used to stalk, lock on and eliminate Palestinian life with precision.”
The group warned Rus to “end your work with the Israeli war machine, or know that your name will be etched into the history of this massacre as one of its engineers,” per Khan’s screenshots.
“This violent threat was enabled by MIT’s support of terrorist-sympathizing rhetoric,” Khan wrote. “Now, researchers fear being murdered if they go into work to do science.”
She called for MIT president Sally Kornbluth and Mark Gorenberg, the university’s corporation chair, to be brought “before Congress. They’ve failed to protect us.”
Samantha Joseph, ADL New England Regional director, told JNS: “We are alarmed by the activity of this extremist group, which has taken their online rhetoric and claims to have now escalated it into offline vandalism and threats, including against the targeted professor.”
“This is absolutely unacceptable and serves as yet another example of how hostile campuses have become for Jewish faculty and students,” she said.
Joseph is calling on the university to investigate the matter and hold everyone involved accountable.
“Incidents on New England college campuses nearly doubled last year,” Joseph said, noting that there were 151 incidents reported in 2024, up from 81 in 2023 and 15 in 2022. “Whether it’s harassment, assault, or vandalism, this type of hate has no place in our institutions of learning.”
Kimberly Allen, executive director of media relations at MIT, told JNS that campus police are “working with local and federal officials to identify the individual or individuals responsible for the graffiti on campus this weekend so that they can be held accountable for these outrageous acts of vandalism, targeting and threats of violence.”
“While we do not publicly discuss the specifics of internal safety plans, I can confirm we are taking steps beyond the investigation to further increase security on campus,” Allen said.
Aaron Bandler
Source: https://www.jns.org/anti-israel-graffiti-sprayed-on-mit-building-targets-professor/
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