Attorney General will not proceed with probe into pro-Palestine graffiti at Bates College

Jun. 11—LEWISTON — A national civil rights group on Friday applauded a decision by the Maine Attorney General's Office to not pursue a hate crime investigation into graffiti that appeared on the Bates College campus last month.

In mid-May, Bates was tagged with what some described as anti-Israel graffiti and flyers. Among the comments written were "Free Palestine," "Stop Ethnic Cleansing" and "Israel is killing innocent people."

Gwen Lexow, Bates's director of Title IX and civil rights compliance, told students at the time that college officials had heard from a number of people "expressing deep concern about the impact of the language contained in the flyers and graffiti, particularly on Jewish members of our campus community."

Bates officials asked Lewiston police to investigate. But while some regarded the graffiti as a hate crime, others did not, and the issue divided the student body.

A few days after the graffiti appeared, the student government at Bates joined 14 other student organizations to denounce the college's decision this week to ask police to investigate some anti-Israel graffiti.