On Monday morning, two city workers cleaned away pro-Palestinian graffiti that had been plastered on Portland City Hall.
Handwritten messages reading “Free Palestine” and “Stop the Genocide” were scrawled on the Southwest Fourth Avenue entrance and pillars of the downtown building. Another pillar was covered with red hand prints, seeming to symbolize blood on one’s hands.
It was not immediately clear when the graffiti was put on the building. Mike Benner, a spokesperson for the Portland Police Bureau, said police had received no calls about the graffiti.
“It is not an effective way to make a statement. It’s vandalism, plainly and simply. This is a taxpayer-run facility,” Portland Mayor Wheeler told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Monday. “This is the center of our local government, and I differentiate sharply between political messaging and flat-out criminal vandalism and destruction, which is what this is. I don’t care what the message is.”
Protesters have gathered periodically in downtown Portland over the last two months to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. An estimated 1,200 were killed when Hamas waged a brutal attack on Israel on Oct. 7, the Israel Defense Forces has estimated. Roughly 120 people are still being held hostage. Gaza health officials estimate that more than 18,000 people have been killed in the military response by Israel.
— Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632; Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com; Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh
— Jamie Goldberg; jgoldberg@oregonian.com; 503-221-8228; @jamiebgoldberg
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