If you wander the arts quad today, you'll see the patch of grass to the left of A.D. White covered in small flags. The display was created in remembrance of the Holocaust, with each flag representing 4,000 killed through the genocide. The flags are not only representative of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, but are also in memory of any minorities that suffered at the hands of the Nazis, including homosexuals and the mentally challenged. Each maligned group is represented by a different colored flag (e.g. Yellow flags represent Jewish victims)

To the Editor:

Re: “Rally Protests Hamas Rule, Calls For Peace,” Opinion, Feb. 24

Regarding the ongoing tumult over the recent vandalizing of the Gaza display on the Arts Quad, while this writer offers no view on the merits of the terrible situation in Gaza and Israel, one must ask why the Cornell University administration has elected to politicize the Arts Quad in the heart of the campus in contravention of its own rules and regulations that expressly prohibit outdoor displays and postings? (See: the Office of the Dean of Students’ website for the official posting policy guidelines at: http://sao.cornell.edu/SO/postering.php.)

The events surrounding the flag exhib­ition on the Arts Quad last week brings to light the ongoing debate over provocation and proportionate response. The 1,300 black flags lining the Arts Quad commemorated the Palestinians and Israelis who died in the December violence in Gaza. The administrators and student groups that sponsored the display sought to spread awareness of the humanitarian crisis and generate discussion amongst Cornell students. Though it was not meant to be an anti-Israeli protest, the vandalization that ensued questions the objective nature of the exhibition. Moreover, it was not the protest itself, but the way in which it was implemented that seems to have provoked students to resort to vandalism.

We were pretty consumed with all the talk about Milstein last week, but when someone mentioned that there were flags on the Arts Quad, we perked up — everybody loves a good news story. And the display kept changing shape! Throughout the week it seemed that everybody partook and created their very own alternative flag display. While you were all busy reading about the black flags on the Arts Quad, we caught the five following displays that sadly went unnoticed by most ...

1 FLAG

In lieu of the much needed director, office manager and assistant dean for the LGBTQ community and resource center, a group of disgruntled students hoisted one lonely rainbow flag — representing the measly one person needed! — on the top of the clock tower.

5 FLAGS

“There’s not much dialogue on campus,” said Khullat Munir ’09, outgoing president of the Islamic Alliance for Justice and one of the organizers of the Arts Quad display. “We wanted to get out awareness.”

— “Protest Gone Wrong: Gaza Display Ruined,” News, The Sun, Feb. 9

I had originally intended this piece to be a point-by-point refutation of the “facts” displayed at the now-infamous “black flags” display. However, I concluded that there are larger issues at hand than Israel’s reputation.

“Go do your homework!” onlookers shouted, as a dozen students gathered on the Arts Quad yesterday morning to revive what remained of a display of black flags protesting the war in Gaza. Hours before, passersby were startled to find that a number of the black flags that originally lined the Arts Quad Monday morning had been rearranged to form a Star of David — the symbol of Jewish identity.

On Monday morning I found myself running breathlessly up to campus, on my way to Clark Library to finish a long overdue electrodynamics problem set. When I arrived on the Arts Quad, I was greeted by 1,300 black flags and a host of signs displaying statistics from the Battle of Gaza.

Later in the day, detractors would remove the signs from the Arts Quad. They would stow away statements made by the U.N., Amnesty International and the BBC. They would stamp out the statistics — houses destroyed, children murdered and war crimes committed. But they wouldn’t uproot the flags.

There were simply too many flags. In the 15 minutes between classes, who could uproot all 1,300 of them?