Vandals hit billboard targeting antisemitism on Interstate 290 in Worcester; sign replaced

Toni Caushi and Tatum Goetting, Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Updated ·2 min read
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The vandalized sign on I-290 in Worcester.
The vandalized sign on I-290 in Worcester.
Clear Channel, owner of the billboard, replaced the defaced billboard with a public service announcement.
Clear Channel, owner of the billboard, replaced the defaced billboard with a public service announcement.

Update: The original billboard returned days later.

WORCESTER – A can of pink paint, with its contents spilled on rocks and bare branches of shrubbery, looked hastily dropped at the foot of a billboard off Interstate 290 Tuesday, days after an anti-Hamas message above was vandalized.

Although by late morning, Clear Channel, the owner of the billboard, had replaced the defaced sign with a public service message from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the tools used to twist the meaning of the billboard’s message remained.

A paintbrush with its bristles doused in the same pink and dropped a few feet away from the pain can looked like the likely tool to have been used in covering the last three words of “Let’s be clear: Hamas is your problem too.”

In black paint, the sentence was finished with "FREEING PALESTINE.”

At the billboard’s right corner, where the name of JewBelong, a Jewish organization that placed the billboard sign was once found, vandals added in black “ISRAEL MURDERED 25,000 PEOPLE.”

Worcester Police is investigating the matter, according to Lt. Sean Murtha, a spokesperson for the department.

"The pro-Hamas graffiti on this billboard is a grotesque distortion of reality," Steven Schimmel, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts, said Sunday. "This vandalism must be handled with swift action and strong condemnation. Jewish Federation officials are in communication with Worcester police, ADL and city officials."

Hamas, a political and military organization the U.S. Department of State has listed as a terrorist organization since 1997, is estimated to have killed 1,200 people in a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, while taking more than 200 hostages, according to Israel’s foreign ministry.

In response, Israel launched an invasion of Hamas-controlled Gaza that it says is aimed at eliminating Hamas.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says more than 20,000 people have died in Israel's offensive.

A paintbrush coated with pink paint remained on the ground below the vandalized billboard on Tuesday morning.
A paintbrush coated with pink paint remained on the ground below the vandalized billboard on Tuesday morning.
A can of pink paint remained below the vandalized billboard on Tuesday morning.
A can of pink paint remained below the vandalized billboard on Tuesday morning.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Anti-hamas billboard defaced on Worcester highway