A chalkboard “Before I Die” installation at the University of Sussex in England — asking students to write on it what they aspire to do before the end of their lives — has been vandalized with anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi messages.
The “Before I die” board was vandalized with a number of pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic messages. According to The Tab, one message read: “Jet fuel can’t melt Jews. Holocaust was an inside job”.
(The reference to jet fuel is a sly allusion to 9/11 trutherism. “Jet fuel can’t melt steel beams” is a reference to conspiracy theories that 9/11 was an inside job. Anti-Semites changed the phrase to make it sound like this inside job was perpetrated by Jews. )
The chalkboard art project allows students to reflect on themselves and write any personal desires they have and is aimed at showcasing common humanity. Typically, students write “before I die I want to graduate” or “before I die I want to smash the patriarchy.”
After the university staff removed the anti-Semitic message, however, the same space was filled with another message, this time saying “Make Köniysberg German again (and Pomerania)”.
Several people on social media also criticized another text on the board, reading “Before I die I want to see end of Israel”.
Sussex Vice Chancellor Adam Tickell responded to the hate messages on board, tweeting: “Intolerable anti-Semitic graffiti removed from campus. Working with police & will take any action necessary to stop hate crime”.
The incident comes just weeks after the annual “Israel Apartheid week” at the university which hosted radical anti-Semites. The “Sussex Friends of Palestine” society hosted a panel discussion featuring well-documented hate preachers.
The university society invited South African activist Farid Esack, an infamous speaker who gained prominence among anti-Semites after saying he “would not pray” for Jewish victims of the Paris attack on a kosher deli back in 2015. A German embassy spokesperson also said Esack is “sympathetic to Holocaust denial” after he sparked a controversy at a German university.
The anti-Semitic messages on the board also raise concerns about the inadequate protection of Jewish students at British universities.
A few months ago, a member of the House of Lords, Baroness Deech, slammed universities for tolerating anti-Semitism out of fear of offending rich Middle Eastern donors and making certain universities “no-go” zones for Jewish people.