On Thursday, a banned anti-Israel student organization claimed responsibility for painting the University of Pennsylvania’s Benjamin Franklin statue crimson.
“Penn, your hands are red,” Up Against the Occupation, also known as (u)PAO, shared on Instagram a few 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,” the post continued, including photos and a video of the vandalism that took place.
Accountability was requested by senior Noah Rubin, an orthodox Jew and past president of the Penn Israel Public Affairs Committee.
“Actions must have consequences. Blatant support for terrorism has become common at Penn from students and professors,” Rubin said to the Washington Free Beacon. “The university must hold the vandals, and their supporters, accountable.”
Renamed from Penn Against the Occupation, (u)PAO was forced to change its name after Penn terminated its status as a registered student organization in April. The Office of Student Affairs stated that 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 action made it illegal for it to have any kind of affiliation with Penn, but the group was still organizing anti-Israel demonstrations.
As stated by (u)PAO in a social media post, the Franklin statue is “a symbol of imperial violence and colonialism.” It was also the location of an encampment and anti-Israel demonstrations that sparked unrest on Penn’s campus following Hamas’s strikes on October 7.
“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 on Thursday.
