Two homes owned by University of Michigan leaders were vandalized Monday on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas including the West Bloomfield home owned by President Santa Ono.
The messages at Ono’s home were spray-painted in red on his house and sidewalk. They included “Coward,” “Divest now,” along with upside down triangles and “intifada,” an Arabic word meaning uprising or resistance, according to photos reviewed by The Detroit News and confirmed by three UM regents.
The Chelsea home of Erik Lundberg, UM’s chief investment officer, was also vandalized with similar words, the regents said, including “complicit” and “intifada.”
UM spokeswoman Colleen Mastony confirmed the vandalism at Ono’s house, which is separate from his university residence where he is required to live, but directed questions about the investigation to West Bloomfield police.
Bloomfield Township police confirmed they are investigating a separate vandalism incident at the Jewish Federation of Detroit, which happened around 4 a.m. Monday and was captured on surveillance cameras. Nick Soley, the Bloomfield Township police spokesman, said he is working with the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, the FBI and the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the crime and review evidence.
“Evidence has been turned over. There are multiple individuals who appear to be suspects at this time,” Soley said.
Soley said his department is in contact with West Bloomfield police, who are investigating the vandalism at Ono’s house. A West Bloomfield police spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
FBI spokesman Jordan Hall confirmed the FBI is in the Bloomfield Township and West Bloomfield Township areas on Monday conducting law enforcement activity.
The vandalism at Ono’s house comes on the one year anniversary of the Oct. 7 the Hamas attacks on Israel that killed an estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians. About 250 hostages also were taken.
“This is yet another assaultive act of intimidation by the antisemitic mob that has attempted to intimidate and disrupt our university,” UM Regent Mark Bernstein said Monday. “Thankfully, they have failed and will continue to fail. This must be condemned unequivocally. Failure to do so would be disgraceful and revealing.”
“It’s despicable,” added UM Regent Ron Weiser. “No matter what your position is on all of these issues, why do they think doing all this vandalism is going to change anything?”
Past board chair Sarah Hubbard called the vandalism “unacceptable.”
“We are going to do everything we can to figure out who did this and hold them accountable,” Hubbard said.
In June, vandals also targeted the Southfield law office of a UM Regent Jordan Acker with spray-painted messages that included “Free Palestine” and “Divest Now.”
It follows months of demonstrations and disruptions by UM students and their allies, who have demanded that the university divest from its portfolio any holdings linked to Israel since the country’s counteract on Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry.
UM officials have argued that its investment policies insulate the university from political demands, and the regents have repeatedly said they aren’t changing the policy. In the case of Israeli and military companies, the university’s indirect exposure is “less than 0.04% of the endowment’s market value, or less than $7 million,” UM spokeswoman Colleen Mastony told The Detroit News in early May.
In September, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said charged 11 people with crimes in connection with alleged incidents involving protests against Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza at the UM, which was criticized by the Council of American-Islamic Relation’s Michigan chapter and Detroit Democratic U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American in Congress, as targeting demonstrators.
“The right to free speech and assembly is fundamental, and my office fully supports every citizen’s right to free speech under the First Amendment,” Nessel said in a September statement. “…I hope today’s charges are a reminder to everyone who chooses to assemble, regardless of the cause, that the First Amendment does not provide a cover for illegal activity.”
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