A July 4 vandalism spree has split the City Council with its antizionist messaging, decried by some Councilors as a hate crime while others declined to speak about it at all.

Political actors defaced several monuments and fixtures on the Common and Public Garden on Independence Day, including the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Services Memorial Stone and Equestrian Statue of George Washington.

Red spray paint, applied both freehand and with stencils, spelled out messages like “DEATH TO AMERIKKKA,” “END ZIONISM,” “FREE PALESTINE” and “FREE GAZA.”

Workers from the city’s Property Management Department spent the day cleaning up the vandalism, tallying around 30 defacements by the time they finished at 7pm.

City Councilor Ed Flynn immediately called the act not only antisemitic but a hate crime against veterans, citing his 25 years of service in the navy.

“It’s clearly targeted speech against the Jewish community and against U.S. veterans.

It’s important that we acknowledge that.

It’s a fine line, but those phrases are at times used in an antisemitic way. To divide people intentionally. I know what antisemitism is, and that was antisemitic vandalism I saw,” he said.

District 8 Councilor Sharon Durkan was a bit more circumspect, reiterating in a statement what she originally said on July 4 but declining to specify whether the incident was antisemitic in nature.

“Everyone should feel safe in our parks, and anything that makes residents feel on edge, unsafe or targeted based on their identity is unacceptable. It's a shame that vandals targeted historical monuments during a time when we should be celebrating and reflecting on our nation's history. There is an ongoing investigation, and I will defer to the police on the specific details,” a spokesperson said.

City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson and Council President Ruthzee Louijeune did not respond to a request to comment on the incident. The Parks Department said in a statement that such a concentration of graffiti was unprecedented. Police Department spokesperson Sergeant John Boyle couldn’t remember any comparable cases under his tenure.

The police report states that around six individuals worked together to paint the messages at 11:50pm, as well as reporting the Soldiers and Sailors Monument had been covered in stickers reading “resist until victory and Free Palestine.”

Rabbi Marc Baker, president and CEO of Combined Jewish Philanthropies, minced no words labeling the message hate speech.

“July 4 is meant to be a day of celebration.

Instead, the Boston community experienced yet another act of Jewish hate. Our communal spaces should be safe spaces to come together. Make no mistake. The vandalism that took place on the Soldiers and Sailors Monument is an example of antisemitism and only serves to further divide our communities and encourage even more hateful, violent acts,” he said in a statement.

Jeremy Burton, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, agreed with messages like “FREE GAZA” and “FREE PALESTINE,” but rejected the assertion that antizionism is a necessary step for that to happen.

“The rhetoric of ‘free Gaza’ can mean many different things to many different people. When we talk about whether this is antisemitic or not, it’s really about the ‘end Zionism’ language. If it just said ‘free Gaza’, it would be vandalism. But I don’t know if it would be investigated as a hate crime,” he said.

Burton emphasized that he has no issue with specific criticism of Israel’s government or its policies. But he does believe all peoples have a right to a dedicated state and argues many critics of Israel hold the state to a double standard.

“If you’re an antinationalist who goes around speaking Esperanto and campaigning to dismantle the states of France and Germany then sure, you’re not an antisemite. But if the only state in the world you’re trying to dismantle is Israel at the same time you defend a Palestinian state, then you’re being antisemitic,” he said.