From the Liveblog of
Saturday, April 5, 2025
Columbia University bathroom vandalized with Hamas triangles, ‘free Palestine’ graffiti
A Columbia University bathroom has been vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti during a visit Thursday by the new campus president.
“Welcome Shitman,” referencing interim president Claire Shipman was scrawled on the wall, along with upside-down red triangles — a symbol used by Hamas to indicate Israeli targets, as well as FUCK the TRUSTEE COUP” and “free PALESTINE.”
Images of the vandalism were shared by CU Apartheid Divest, an anti-Israel group at the forefront of campus protests, which called Shipman an “AIPAC-backed university dictator.”
Flyers reading, “Shitman! Shitman! We know you. You arrest your students too!” were placed around the bathroom stalls, and bore the symbol of Columbia’s Students for a Democratic Society, another anti-Israel group on campus.
SUBMISSION: A group of anonymous actionists welcomed @Columbia’s new AIPAC-backed university dictator Claire Shipman with a redecoration of Columbia’s bathrooms during her campus visit.
Who is Columbia's latest President – the third in under two years????? pic.twitter.com/1Da3ImZFmE
— CU Apartheid Divest (CUAD) (@ColumbiaBDS) April 3, 2025
Last spring, Columbia became the epicenter of an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian student protest movement, drawing criticism from both Democratic and Republican politicians, donors, and some students and faculty.
Last month, Columbia agreed to a series of changes demanded by the Trump Administration as a precondition for restoring $400 million in federal funding the government pulled this month over the school’s handling of antisemitism on campus amid pro-Palestinian protests against Israel.
The board of trustees appointed its co-chair, Shipman, as interim university president last week.
Reuters contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.