Abhorrent “Missing Cow” posters appearing to mock the Israeli hostages held by Hamas were plastered around the University of Pennsylvania this week — with the Ivy League institution vowing to find those responsible.
Posters appeared around campus on Thursday featuring the words “Missing Cow” on a red and white masthead with a silhouette of a cow and the phrase “beef dinner” written across it.
It offered a box of chalk and a can of beer as a reward and encouraged people to get in touch via an email address.
The posters bore a striking resemblance to the original “Kidnapped” posters designed by Israeli artists Nitzan Mintz and Dede Bandaid, which bear the faces and names of those who were abducted by the terrorist group on Oct. 7.
“A series of posters mocking kidnapped Israelis and comparing hostage victims to cows were spotted all over campus,” the activist group Stop Antisemitism posted on X.
UPenn officials said the posters were promptly removed and they are now working to identify the group responsible.
Once they are identified, the university plans to take disciplinary action in accordance with school policy, the Daily Pennsylvanian reports.
“Penn Public Safety is actively working to identify the individuals responsible for hanging crude, deplorable posters on campus,” a spokesperson told the outlet.
It remains unclear who may have put the posters up, but Psychiatry Professor Robert Schnoll spotted three students putting them up Thursday morning, he told the Daily Pennsylvanian.
He said that when he tried to confront the students about the posters, which he found to be “insensitive and cruel,” they “ran off.”
When the student-run newspaper reached out to the email listed on the posters about the stunt, it received an email back saying the posters were simply meant as “a joke to promote veganism.”
“The format of the poster was an unintentional mistake that we now realize could be misconstrued,” the email read, despite the hostage posters being well-known and widespread.
It then went on to condemn Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, and claimed the posters “did not mean to allude to that situation.”
The incident marks the latest scandal for the Ivy League institution amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Following the terrorist attack last month, a student was filmed saying she felt “so empowered and happy” by the act.
The clip, circulating online and shared by US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) of the Bronx, shows the back of the woman as she spoke at a pro-Palestinian rally, saying: “I remember feelings so empowered and happy, so confident that victory was near and so tangible.
“I want all of you to hold that feeling in your hearts. Never let go of it. Channel it through every action you take.”
The university also faced backlash for taking too long to disavow the slaughter, with many donors reneging on their support for the university.
UPenn also now faces a civil rights complaint, accusing it of being “a magnet for antisemites.”
The suit filed with the Office of Civil Rights in the US Department of Education alleges that “Penn has allowed its campus to become a hostile environment for its Jewish students as well as a magnet for anti-Semites.”
According to Kenneth L. Marcus, founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center and former US assistant secretary of education, colleges and universities have “failed to keep Jewish students safe and are in clear violation of well-established federal civil rights law.”
“There’s been a lot of talk about rooting out antisemitism on campuses, and it’s time to hold these colleges accountable,” he added.
The complaints “seek immediate and specific action to address increasing discrimination against and harassment of Jews in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” a statement from the human rights nonprofit read.