Anti-Israel protesters burned an American flag outside the Hillel at the University of Oregon in Eugene on Oct. 7, on the third anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, and called for the Hillel to be removed from campus.
In footage of the protest, two Israeli flags hung from the house’s windows, and a sukkah remained set up outside on the front lawn. Protesters appear to stand on the lawn, sidewalk and street.
In the video, a man wearing a red keffiyeh shakes a tambourine and chants in Arabic, while another man sets fire to a large American flag. A group of masked protesters chants “death to the IDF,” “we will get Hillel off campus” and “glory to the martyrs of the al-Aqsa flood,” referring to Hamas’s name for the Oct. 7 attack.
The protest comes days after Lenny Steinberg, the executive director of the Oregon Hillel Foundation, was targeted with posters accusing him of supporting “the ongoing genocide in Palestine” and calling for the Hillel to be removed from campus. It also follows the theft of Oregon State University’s sukkah, which was newly donated and stolen in late September.
Steinberg released a statement on Thursday night, writing that while the protest was happening, Jewish students were gathered in Corvallis “to remember the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.”
He called the protest “harassment and intimidation” and “clearly antisemitic,” and thanked school leaders and Oregon lawmakers for their public support.
“But a statement is where accountability begins, not where it ends,” Steinberg wrote. “We expect the University of Oregon to hold students, faculty and staff responsible for intimidation and hate speech.”
“Oregon Hillel is not going anywhere,” he wrote, adding that they are working with law enforcement, the university and private security “to keep our community safe.”
“We will keep celebrating Shabbat, welcoming students and building a community where no one has to face hatred alone,” Steinberg wrote.
