A display of over one thousand Israeli and American flags was destroyed over the weekend at Harvard University.
The flags were planted by the local chapter of the Young America's Foundation to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that sparked the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Jewish student who helped plant the flags with YAF, said he found the display vandalized coming home from a Sabbath service.
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"We had almost all of our Israeli flags and our American flags either thrown all over the campus, thrown in the garbage, or ripped," Kestenbaum said in a video showing the damaged flags. "All of our hostage posters were of course ripped and destroyed, so we’re gonna get new ones."
YAF posted photos and videos of the damage on social media. The group plans to fix the memorial.
"These flags represent the Americans and Israelis who’ve been held hostage since October 7th," YAF President Gov. Scott Walker said in a statement following the vandalism. "The radicals who vandalized this display don’t care about them. They are wrong. So wrong."
Students at an encampment on the Harvard campus are facing threats of severe disciplinary action by the university administration.
Harvard President Alan Garber has announced that students involved in the unsanctioned group Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine (HOOP) could face involuntary leave if their protest continues, according to the Harvard Crimson.
HOOP gave school administrators until Monday evening to begin negotiating with student protest leaders, but did not receive a response.
The unrecognized student group has not made clear what will happen now that the deadline has lapsed.
The students are demanding the university entirely divest from companies and financial technologies connected with Israel.
