When a contractor was hired to cover up all of the anti-Semitic mess left behind by pro-Palestinian protesters, he did a very thorough job.
On Monday night, protesters painted a Palestinian flag and an assortment of slogans on the Advocacy and Spirit walls of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, according to Cleveland.com.
College President Eric Kaler said the messages were “threatening, intimidating and anti-Semitic” and hired a contractor to spray paint over them.
Early Tuesday, the contractor showed up to get the job done.
Students showed up to stop the work and brought along someone to video their heroic stand.
But instead of video showing work being brought to a halt, the video showed a contractor spraying the face-shield-wearing students as they stood against the wall.
Ameer Alkayali, 18, a Palestinian-American who attends the University of Cincinnati, said he was one of the students
“I stood against the wall, and the painters asked, ‘Should we continue?’ The cops showed general confusion and didn’t tell them to stop,” he said. “So, as seen in the video, they continue to just paint right over us.
“They told us to not put our hands in front of the machine because it’s dangerous. And we put our hands up, and they still continued to paint on our hands and sprayed us with it,” he said.
Alkayali, who said he intends to sue the college administrators and college public safety department over the incident, said that the paint was still under his nails later Tuesday and that it did not come off of his skin for hours.
President Kaler indicated he was not amused by the incident, according to a statement posted on the college website.
“I have reviewed video footage, which depicts students blocking the wall as a third-party contractor spray painted directly onto protesters as he attempted to finish painting the wall, and I am disturbed by what occurred,” he wrote.
“Let me be clear: No students -- or any individuals -- should ever be treated this way, especially on a campus where our core values center on providing a safe, welcoming environment. This is not who we are as an institution, and I am deeply sorry this ever occurred,” he wrote, saying the college would investigate why campus police did not intervene.
@FrantzRantz \- Bob: you need to get Case Western spray paint guy on your show. He is NEO's new hero. And if they fire him or charge him with assault, we need to raise a buttload of money for him.
— Gary Gnu (@GaryGnuGoodGnew) May 8, 2024
As noted by Cleveland.com, the Spirit Wall was painted again Tuesday night, but this time, it was a pro-Israel message that read, “They call for intifada so we call them terrorists.”
On Tuesday, Kaler told protesters, he wanted them to disperse and said the college will not pull university assets from companies linked to Israel, according to Clevescene.
"Divestment -- a key component of the protesters' demands -- is and remains something the university will not do,” he wrote in a letter to them.
