Red hands painted on a tree at Pratt Institute’s Brooklyn campus are being used to “terrorize” Jewish students in a bloody reminder of a lynching of two Israelis, critics claim.
“What better way to terrorize your Jewish students and faculty into submission than maintaining a display in the middle of your campus representing Jews getting lynched?” said Rory Lancman, senior counsel to the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, who forwarded The Post a snap of the tree with the symbol removed.
Israeli Jews said the red hands were painful reminder of of the Ramallah Lynching of 2000, during the Secnd Intifada, when Israeli military reservists Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz were lynched by a massive Palestinian mob in Ramallah, West Bank, after they made a wrong turn in the Palestinian-run-region.
One particular gruesome image from the murder became infamous when one of the killers, Aziz Salha, waved his bloodied hands from the lynching and dismemberment of the two Jews to the crowd.
Historians said the infamous use of the red hands to kill Jews goes back much further.
During the Jewish holiday of Shavuot in 1941, a pogrom was carried out against the Jewish community of Baghdad, Iraq. This pogrom is known as Farhud or “forced dispossession.”
Red hands were painted on Jewish houses for identification for the pogrom, where homes were later burned and Jews slaughtered.
Anti-Israel protesters have been seen at rallies painting red hands on buildings or painting their hands red.
Lancman criticized Pratt professor Uzma Rizvi, who noted the “Red Hands” tree on the campus in an Instagram post.
“Back to campus and I’m reminded of our students’ protest,” Rizvi said in the post.
“NYT says they’re pulling some of the tanks out of the North. Why were tanks set up against civilians in the first place? #Cease Fire Now,” she said, while posting an image of the Palestinian flag.
Pratt, in a statement to The Post, said the paint was removed from the tree on campus.
“Any defacement to our campus property is addressed as quickly as possible, and we have removed the paint on the tree,” a Pratt spokesperson said.
“Pratt Institute is an educational environment in which all students and faculty feel safe to learn, thrive, and know that their academic freedom and freedom of expression are protected,” the spokesperson sadded. “We do not tolerate speech or actions that are harassing, discriminatory, biased, or hateful against anyone. Our Community Standards foster a spirit of concern and respect for others, as do our safety and support resources for our students and faculty.”
Professor Rizvi also heads the venerable college’s Academic Senate, which scheduled and then postponed a vote during Passover on a controversial resolution calling for an “academic and cultural boycott of Israel” — after The Brandeis Center sent a letter to Pratt officials claiming the exclusion of Jews from participating in the discussion smacked of discrimination.
But a vote on the BDS resolution at the school knows for its art, design and architecture programs — which the Brandeis Center said itself is antisemitic — could take place as early as Wednesday.
The Post reached out to Rizvi for comment but did not receive a response.
