Pratt Institute red-hands painting on tree used to ‘terrorize’ Jewish students, critics say
Red hands painted on a tree at Pratt Institute’s Brooklyn campus are being used to “terrorize” Jewish students in a bloody reminder of a lynching of two Israelis, critics claim.
“What better way to terrorize your Jewish students and faculty into submission than maintaining a display in the middle of your campus representing Jews getting lynched?” said Rory Lancman, senior counsel to the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, who forwarded The Post a snap of the tree with the symbol removed.
Israeli Jews said the red hands were painful reminder of of the Ramallah Lynching of 2000, during the Secnd Intifada, when Israeli military reservists Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz were lynched by a massive Palestinian mob in Ramallah, West Bank, after they made a wrong turn in the Palestinian-run-region.
One particular gruesome image from the murder became infamous when one of the killers, Aziz Salha, waved his
bloodied hands from the lynching and dismemberment of the two Jews to the crowd.
Historians said the infamous use of the red hands to kill Jews goes back much further.
During the Jewish holiday of Shavuot in 1941, a pogrom was carried out against the Jewish community of Baghdad, Iraq. This pogrom is known as Farhud or “forced dispossession.”
Red hands
were painted on Jewish houses for identification for the pogrom, where homes were later burned and Jews slaughtered.
Anti-Israel protesters have been
seen at rallies painting red hands on buildings or painting their hands red.
Lancman criticized Pratt professor Uzma Rizvi, who noted the “Red Hands” tree on the campus in an Instagram post.
“Back to campus and I’m reminded of our students’ protest,” Rizvi said in the post.
“NYT says they’re pulling some of the tanks out of the North. Why were tanks set up against civilians in the first place? #Cease Fire Now,” she said, while posting an image of the Palestinian flag.
Pratt, in a statement to The Post, said the paint was removed from the tree on campus.
“Any defacement to our campus property is addressed as quickly as possible, and we have removed the paint on the tree,” a Pratt spokesperson said.
Pratt Institute red-hands painting on tree used to ‘terrorize’ Jewish students, critics say (nypost.com)
