State investigating anti-Israel graffiti at Bates College
May 11—The Maine attorney general's office is investigating anti-Israel graffiti and flyers left across the Bates College campus on Sunday.
The Lewiston Sun Journal reported that police referred the case to the attorney general's office as a possible hate crime.
College officials contacted police after the vandalism was discovered and have been working to clean it up. Numerous people contacted the college to express "deep concern" about its impact on the campus and the college's Jewish community, the newspaper reported.
The Bates Leftist Coalition on Monday shared photos of chalk slogans on the side of a college building that read "Free Palestine" and "Stop Ethnic Cleansing." At least one included profanity.
The group denied involvement in the vandalism, but told the Sun Journal that the messages were "not an act of anti-Semitism but of anti-colonialism."
