Updated March 4
A pro-Israel billboard in Arcata was vandalized for the second time in less than a month.
The newest billboard was unfurled on Feb. 26, after a previous one was torn down by vandals sometime late Feb. 7 or early Feb. 8, just days after it was installed.
Located alongside a rural highway near Cal Poly Humboldt — a university riven by anti-Israel protests last spring — the new billboard states: “Israel, The Eternal Jewish Nation. Fighting Terrorism. Seeking Peace.”
“Masked vandals” tagged the new billboard with graffiti within two days, according to Code Blue and White, the pro-Israel group that commissioned the billboard. An image taken from surveillance video on Feb. 28 shows graffiti covering parts of the billboard. The graffiti reads “Parade” in all-caps, a word with no discernible connection to the content of the billboard. There is also an illegible word on the left-hand side of the billboard written over the word “seeking.”
The first billboard, put up on Feb. 4, stated: “Call me a Zionist. It only makes me prouder.” It quickly became a flash point for controversy and debate in Humboldt County, which has a population of 134,000 and one synagogue, in Eureka, plus a Chabad center in Arcata.
A contingent of passionate pro-Palestinian activists live in the area. Last spring, activists at Cal Poly Humboldt occupied campus buildings for days, clashing with police and forcing the public university to close in what the New York Times described as the “nation’s most entrenched protest” during a season of raucous protests. In town, a group called the Redwood Peace and Justice Coalition recently lobbied the Arcata City Council to establish a sister city relationship with Gaza City.
After the first billboard went up, many zeroed in on it almost immediately, posting anonymous messages on Reddit and Instagram, taking issue with its messaging and threatening to vandalize it. A Change.org petition described the billboard as carrying “genocidal messaging.” It was found destroyed on Feb. 8.
In conversations with J., supporters of the billboard expressed defiance, defending their free speech rights and arguing that the billboard messages convey uncontroversial truths.
“I think it’s important to keep promoting positive, true messages about Israel.” David Porush, San Mateo
“I think it’s important to keep promoting positive, true messages about Israel and its fight against the terrorists who committed atrocities on Oct. 7,” said David Porush of San Mateo, who recently founded Code Blue and White to advocate for Israel in the public square. “Israel is a tiny nation surrounded by countries that are hostile to it. A lot of misinformation gets spread around the campuses, and into college towns.”
Porush worked with JewBelong, a New Jersey-based nonprofit, to crowdfund for the Arcata billboards and others in Northern California.
Porush, a retired professor of literature and media studies, has reported the vandalism, which he considers to be a hate crime, to the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI, Arcata police and the California Civil Rights Department.
Tamar Krigel, an Israeli-born, longtime resident of Humboldt County, helped design the billboards.
Krigel, who told the Arcata newspaper Mad River Union in mid-February that “anti-Zionism is a modern disguise for antisemitism,” said the new billboard’s message is not meant to “provoke” but rather to inform the public that Israel “has a right to exist in the Middle East,” in the face of attacks on the Jewish state.
Krigel took an unapologetic stance, regardless.
“I’m not hiding who I am. I’m not hiding under a rock,” she said. “Here I am. All I have to say is, Israel has a right to exist. F*** you.”
Update on March 4: Information about the vandalism of the second billboard has been added.