UC Davis Jewish Frat Targeted With Swastika Graffitii After Divestment Resolution Passes

UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi Image by Getty Images

By JTA February 1, 2015

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.

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