Palestinian flag at the student encampment on the University of Michigan campus. April 26, 2024. Photo by Jon King.
“Free Palestine” and other pro-Palestinian messages were spraypainted on University of Michigan Provost Laurie McCauley’s home over the weekend and Ann Arbor Police are seeking information from the public as they investigate.
Officers arrived on the scene early Sunday morning and saw that an object had been thrown through a bedroom window and the words “Free Palestine, “Divest”, and “No Honor in Genocide” had been spray painted on the front of the residence. It’s believed by Ann Arbor Police that the vandalism took place sometime between 9 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. Sunday morning. No one was injured in the incident.
Ann Arbor Police and the university have not confirmed the home as the residence of McCauley, but MLive and Detroit News have confirmed it with individuals at the University of Michigan.
Several high-ranking U of M officials have been the victims of vandalism at their homes or places of work since the October 7, 2023 surprise attack by Hamas on Israel that led to 1,200 deaths and the kidnapping of about 250 individuals. Israel’s subsequent war on Hamas in Gaza left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and an estimated $18.5 billion in infrastructure damage before a ceasefire was reached in January.
On the one-year anniversary of the attacks, the home of University President Santa Ono and the home of Erik Lundberg, U of M’s chief investment officer, were spray painted with pro-Palestine sentiments.
Protestors left what authorities called “fake corpses wrapped in bloodied sheets” at the home of Chair of the University of Michigan Board of Regents Sarah Hubbard’s Meridian Township home in May, while the group chanted “Regent Hubbard, you can’t hide; you are funding genocide,” demanding divestment from companies who work with Israel.
University of Michigan Regent Jordan Acker has been the target of several incidents of vandalism over the last year with his home and law offices being vandalized.
Acker told the Advance in December that he awoke to the sound of glass shattering and his young daughters running into their parents’ room in the middle of the night only to realize someone had thrown jars filled with urine through the windows of his Oakland County home. The words “Divest” and “Free Palestine” had been spray painted in red on his wife’s car along with an upside down triangle which has become associated with Hamas attacks to mark Israeli targets.
“I know that I’m being targeted because I’m Jewish,” Acker told the Advance after the December incident at his home. “This whole idea that I’m somehow responsible, because I’m Jewish, for the behavior of a government that I don’t necessarily support is, quite frankly, absurd. It’s absurd, and it’s antisemitic.”
If anyone has any information about this latest incident, or has surveillance video from the area, they are asked to contact the Ann Arbor Police Department at 734-794-6920, or submit a tip by emailing tips@a2gov.org or through AAPD’s silent witness at aapd.a2gov.org/silentwitness.
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