Palestinian supporters vandalize homes of Brooklyn Museum officials and other locations in NYC

By Philip Marcelo, The Associated Press on June 12, 2024.

Red paint covers portions of the entrance to the German consulate building, Wednesday, June 12, 2024, in New York. Pro-Palestinian protesters have vandalized locations associated with the Brooklyn Museum and United Nations in New York City, throwing red paint across their entrances in opposition to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. (AP Photo/Sophie Rosenbaum)

NEW YORK (AP) – Palestinian protesters vandalized locations associated with the Brooklyn Museum and the United Nations in New York City, throwing red paint across their entrances in opposition to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Mayor Eric Adams posted on the social platform X on Wednesday that police are investigating after the homes of museum director Anne Pasternak and members of the museum’s board of trustees were hit.

He shared four images of a brick building splashed with red paint with a banner hung in front of the door that read: “Anne Pasternak Brooklyn Museum White Supremacist Zionist.”

“This is not peaceful protest or free speech. This is a crime, and it’s overt, unacceptable antisemitism,” Adam’s wrote, sending sympathy to Pasternak and museum board members. “These actions will never be tolerated in New York City for any reason.”

A spokesperson for the museum didn’t respond to email and phone messages seeking comment.

Red paint was also splashed across the front of buildings associated with the German consulate, as well as the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, where flyers critical of the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, were also scattered outside the building.

A spokesperson for the New York Police Department declined to comment, saying the agency is investigating and will provide more information later. Messages seeking comment were also sent Wednesday to Palestinian and German diplomats.

Hundreds of protesters marched on the Brooklyn Museum late last month, setting up tents in the lobby and unfurling a “Free Palestine” banner from the building’s roof before police moved in to make dozens of arrests.

Within Our Lifetime and other organizers of that protest have said the museum is “deeply invested in and complicit” in the war through its leadership, trustees, corporate sponsors and donors.

But City Comptroller Brad Lander, who was among the New York politicians to speak out against the protests, said the Brooklyn Museum has done more to grapple with questions of “power, colonialism, racism & the role of art” than many other museums.

“The cowards who did this are way over the line into antisemitism, harming the cause they claim to care about, and making everyone less safe,” he wrote on X.

The grand Beaux Arts museum, which is the city’s second largest, sits at the edge of Crown Heights, home to one of the city’s largest communities of Orthodox Jews.

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Associated Press reporter Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this report. Follow Philip Marcelo at x.com/philmarcelo.