PHILADELPHIA, PA - Pro-Palestinian activists have taken towards attacking a statue of one of the most admired figures in American history in an attempt to express their opposition to the Israeli government.
The campus group Up Against the Occupation defaced a campus statue of Benjamin Franklin at the University of Pennsylvania, taking credit for the act openly in an Instagram post last week, according to Campus Reform.
"At the heart of campus, the Benjamin Franklin Statue stands proudly as a symbol of imperial violence and colonialism," the group said of the act in the post. The caption went on to liken Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip as genocide, blaming the university for its alleged complicity in the conflict.
"This morning, an autonomous group poured red paint over the statue: a visual reminder of the over 186,000 martyrs and the university’s complicity in genocide." The group went on point to what it described as the impacts of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant Islamist group Hamas.
"The University has tried to supress the student intifada, supressing Palestinian voices, all in the name of 'campus safety.' There are NO Universities left in Gaza. There are NO first days. The education system of Gaza has been systematically destroyed, and the genocide has only expanded."
"DISCLOSE. DIVEST. THE STUDENTS WILL NOT STOP, THE STUDENT MOVEMENT WILL NOT BE STOPPED. UNTIL PALESTINE IS FREE."
University police officers responded to the scene of the vandalism and a police report was filed in connection to the case, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian. University works employees succeeded in cleaning off the red paint defacing the statue hours after it was discovered.
Up Against the Occupation was banned by the university's administration earlier this year, with faculty alleging the group "has 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.”
Franklin founded the University of Pennsylvania himself, serving as the first president of the institution before the American Revolution.
Having spent his entirety of his life in North America and Europe(serving as a colonial ambassador in Britain, and the first United States ambassador to France), Franklin seldom adressed the geopolitics of the contemporary Middle East, living centuries before the dueling Israeli and Palestinian national identities became a factor in the region.
Franklin did criticize the Islamic view of slavery in his writings, even referencing the widespread practice at the time as a means to condemn chattel slavery in the American South.
The campus group Up Against the Occupation defaced a campus statue of Benjamin Franklin at the University of Pennsylvania, taking credit for the act openly in an Instagram post last week, according to Campus Reform.
"At the heart of campus, the Benjamin Franklin Statue stands proudly as a symbol of imperial violence and colonialism," the group said of the act in the post. The caption went on to liken Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip as genocide, blaming the university for its alleged complicity in the conflict.
"This morning, an autonomous group poured red paint over the statue: a visual reminder of the over 186,000 martyrs and the university’s complicity in genocide." The group went on point to what it described as the impacts of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant Islamist group Hamas.
"The University has tried to supress the student intifada, supressing Palestinian voices, all in the name of 'campus safety.' There are NO Universities left in Gaza. There are NO first days. The education system of Gaza has been systematically destroyed, and the genocide has only expanded."
"DISCLOSE. DIVEST. THE STUDENTS WILL NOT STOP, THE STUDENT MOVEMENT WILL NOT BE STOPPED. UNTIL PALESTINE IS FREE."
University police officers responded to the scene of the vandalism and a police report was filed in connection to the case, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian. University works employees succeeded in cleaning off the red paint defacing the statue hours after it was discovered.
Up Against the Occupation was banned by the university's administration earlier this year, with faculty alleging the group "has 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.”
Franklin founded the University of Pennsylvania himself, serving as the first president of the institution before the American Revolution.
Having spent his entirety of his life in North America and Europe(serving as a colonial ambassador in Britain, and the first United States ambassador to France), Franklin seldom adressed the geopolitics of the contemporary Middle East, living centuries before the dueling Israeli and Palestinian national identities became a factor in the region.
Franklin did criticize the Islamic view of slavery in his writings, even referencing the widespread practice at the time as a means to condemn chattel slavery in the American South.
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