OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) – Two months after vandals destroyed a menorah at Lake Merritt in Oakland, antisemitic and pro-Hamas messages were spray-painted on structures at the lake. Another piece of graffiti said “Kill Biden,” in perhaps a reference to the aid that the U.S. president has given to Israel.
On the columns on the eastern arm of Lake Merritt, words spray-painted at the park state, “Free Palestine,” and other messages calling for an end of U.S. aid to Israel.
“I feel a lot of sympathy for the Palestinian people. I think they’ve suffered for a long time,” said Kenzel Hagaman, an Oakland resident who was at the lake on Monday.
Still, Hagaman says vandalism is not a positive way to get a point across.
“It’s a very complicated situation in the Middle East. It doesn’t boil down to graffiti. The Jewish people have also suffered,” she said.
Oakland-based rabbi Mark Bloom believes the vandalism happened sometime on Friday or Saturday.
A report has been filed with police. This happened as the agency continues to investigate the destruction of a menorah at Lake Merritt back in December.
Bloom says he texted Mayor Sheng Thao about the recent vandalism but as of Monday afternoon, he did not hear back. KRON4 also did not hear back upon reaching out to the City of Oakland and its public works department for an estimate on when the graffiti will be cleaned up. The action is possibly delayed by the holiday weekend.
Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area CEO Tyler Gregory is currently with a delegation of state legislators visiting Israel. He says he was disheartened to learn about the graffiti back home.
“This kind of graffiti makes Jews in the Bay Area feel like we don’t belong,” he said. “That we are not welcome here. And, it’s the same type of xenophobia that we’ve seen deployed against other communities like Asian-Americans in recent years.”
The JCRC says more than three of every five Bay Area Jews feel less safe in their day-to-day lives since the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel in October.