Jordan Acker said he will “not let fear win” and asked the community to condemn the hateful act.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
A University of Michigan trustee’s home was vandalized as anti-Israel foes target him for the third time on Monday, with his living room picture window smashed and wife’s car “decorated” with Hamas’ inverted red target triangle.
Jordan Acker showed a picture of the white car on Instagram, which also had the words “Divest” and “Free Palestine” spraypainted in large red letters across two side doors.
He wrote that he and his family were woken “In the very early hours of this morning” by the sound of two heavy objects shattering his window, frightening his three young daughters.
Calling the anti-Israel perpetrators “cowardly” and “Klan-like” in their tactics, he asked the Michigan community to label the acts as terrorism, “publicly repudiate this vile anti-Semitic intimidation,” and help the authorities catch the criminals.
As for himself, he said, he would “not let fear win.”
The university condemned the “criminal acts,” saying, “They are abhorrent and, unfortunately, just the latest in a number of incidents where individuals have been harassed because of their work on behalf of the university.”
“This is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” its statement continued. “We call on our community to come together in solidarity and to firmly reject all forms of bigotry and violence.”
Acker had been targeted in early June as well, with as-yet unknown protestors covering the sign, glass door and windows of his law office with red paint to symbolize blood, along with the words “Divest Now,” “Free Palestine” and, referring to the school, “U-M kills.”
The lawyer and former Obama administration official had called it out as antisemitism then as well, and the police are investigating the case as a hate crime.
“This has nothing to do with Palestine or the war in Gaza or anything else,” Acker told the press at the time. “This is done as a message to scare Jews. I was not targeted here today because I am a regent. I am a target of this because I am Jewish.”
Just two weeks before the incident, the police were called in to break up a month-long encampment at U. of Michigan, which had been, and continues to be, one of the hotbeds of anti-Israel activity on American college campuses.
On May 15, the Gregorian date of Israeli Independence Day, protestors had taped a list of demands about the university divesting from Israel on Acker’s front door at home.
On the same day, they also put several red-stained sheets stuffed to look like body bags on the lawn of the Jewish chairwoman of the university’s Board of Regents, Sarah Hubbard.
The board has so far resisted all efforts by student groups to divest the few million dollars its huge endowment fund has in funds that may include companies in Israel.
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