Jessika FruchterColorado DailyUniversity of Colorado
BOULDER, Colo.?As emotions continue to run high over the defacement of an Israeli flag on the University of Colorado campus, one man came forth earlier this week to take credit for the vandalism, though he chose to withhold his name for what he called “obvious reasons.”
The confession came in the form of a letter to the editor submitted to the Colorado Daily on Tuesday afternoon. The letter was turned over by the paper’s staff to CU police. The letter was written in response to the paper’s ongoing coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian debate on the CU campus.
The man, described by witnesses as being in his early to mid-40s, approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall, with thinning gray hair, dropped the letter off at the reception desk and left promptly. The man, according to witnesses, drove a white Subaru hatchback with a bumper sticker that reads: “subvert the dominant paradigm.”
In general, CU police spokesman Lt. Tim McGraw said, such anonymous letters are rare.
“When we get information, it’s usually attributable,” he said. “It’s not unheard of (to get anonymous confessions), but it’s pretty rare.”
Specifically, the author, who claims to be Jewish, said he objects to his writing on the Israeli flag as being described as “hateful.” He also objects to the term “vandal.”
“Also, I resent Matthew Vogel saying that I was ‘targeting’ Jewish students by writing on an 8-by-11 inch paper copy of an Israeli flag, and equating this action with a threatening phone call and a rock thrown through Hillel’s windows,” the letter reads. “And, Devorah Friedman, while I have some serious questions about Zionism, I am definitely not ‘anti-Semitic.'”
“Successive Israeli governments have said that they want peace. The continued building of settlements in the Palestinian territories shows this to be a lie. Israel can have settlements or it can have peace. It cannot have both,” the letter also reads. “U.S. Jews opposed to Israeli actions should organize against those who blindly support Israel. They should make the U.S. government realize that giving Israel an endless supply of weapons is not a viable way to promote peace.”
As of Thursday, McGraw said he wasn’t sure if the letter would be subject to fingerprinting tests.
He said that he knew of only one person who had been contacted by police. “That person has been cleared,” McGraw said.
Devorah Friedman, Director of CU’s Hillel, said she isn’t surprised by the delayed investigation.
She added that she couldn’t speculate on whether the letter was a hoax or a true confession.
“I am sort of relying on the CUPD for this one,” Friedman said. “Again, I think they’re doing a really good job. I didn’t expect any results.”
U WIRE