UC Davis Jewish Frat Targeted With Swastika Graffitii After Divestment Resolution Passes
![](https://images.forwardcdn.com/image/970x/center/images/cropped/ucdavis-president-w-1425553080.jpg)
UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi Image by Getty Images
Members of a Jewish fraternity at UC Davis awoke to find swastikas painted on their building two days after the student senate passed a divestment resolution targeting Israel.
The non-binding advisory resolution, which was passed Jan. 29 by the Associated Students of UC Davis by a vote of 8 to 2 with two abstentions, calls on the University of California to divest from “corporations that aid in the Israeli occupation of Palestine and illegal settlements in Palestinian territories,” the California Aggie student newspaper reported.
Sometime early Saturday morning two swastikas were sprayed on the off-campus fraternity house of Alpha Epsilon Pi. “I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that this happened right after divestment,” AEPi vice president Nathaniel Bernhard told the Aggie.
In separate statements, UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi said the university opposed divestment and condemned the anti-Semitic graffiti.
“Nothing rivals a swastika as a more potent or offensive symbol of hatred and violence toward our Jewish community members,” Katehi said.
A similar resolution failed to pass the student senate at UC Davis last May. Davis now joins UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz, UC Irvine and UC Riverside in having passed resolutions supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
The UC Board of Regents, which controls the university system’s investment portfolio, has repeatedly said it does not intend to divest from companies doing business with Israel.
![](https://forward.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/msgtwo.png)
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30