PENN, PENNSYLVANIA: A University of Pennsylvania law school library staffer has created an outrage on social media with many calling for him to be released from his post after he was caught on camera ripping down posters featuring hostages in the Israel-Hamas war, Daily Mail reports.
The video, which has now gone viral, was shared by the nonprofit Stop Antisemitism which showed a man walking across a pedestrian bridge on the university’s campus and can be seen taking down posters of civilians, including children, who were kidnapped after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
What did the videographer tell the man?
“Why are you tearing them down?” the person recording the video asked to which the man replied, “Get the f**k out of my face.”
As he continued with his activity, the videographer reminded him, “Innocent people were killed.” “There were people killed in the hospital bombing,” he replied, referencing to a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital on Tuesday night, October 17.
Gaza officials said the strike killed at least 500 Palestinians while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that “the other team” was behind the deadly attack.
The man in the video has been identified as Matthew Carson Wranovics, the library assistant for circulation at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School, by the Post Millennial.
Matthew Carson Wranovics’ photograph was taken down by the university website
The outlet reported that Wranovics’ photograph was also apparently scrubbed from the university’s website following the incident.
Penn Carey Law School spokesperson Meredith Rovine said the incident was “a personnel matter that is being investigated.”
Matthew Carson Wranovics was previously arrested
The kidnap posters have been put on across several major cities to inform people about those who have been abducted since Hamas attacked Israel.
The on-campus incident is apparently not Wranovics’ first foray into far-left activism.
He, along with 19 other students, was arrested during a strike held by the university’s graduate student employees while studying at the University of California Santa Cruz in 2014 to protest against unfair labor practices and intimidation of workers.
This comes after three NYU students were caught on video tearing down similar posters taped up outside the university’s Tisch Hall earlier this week.
One of the students involved, Yazmeen Deyhimi, a junior at the top university who once worked for the Anti-Defamation League, confessed to ripping down the posters in a since-deleted Instagram apology.
“In this age of social media and digital footprint, these moments of anger are selfish and self-absorbed, and not reflective of who I am as a person or who my family had raised me to be,” she wrote.
Social media users react to Matthew Carson Wranovics' inhuman act
Social media also expressed their disappointment after seeing Wranovics bestial act.
One X user wrote, "So sad. I walked that bridge hundreds of times. What has Penn become." Another tweeted, "These events are unfolding in real time. Wild."
One user opined, "It’s completely mind-boggling to see people defending his actions. For years we have questioned the allegations that criticizing Israel is anti-Semitism. Clearly, it is not necessarily. But today, we see people taking it a step further. A step too far."
One wrote, "See University student already blaming Israel for Hospital. This is the massive misinformation taking place in our Universities now. Obscene his knee jerk response. Which was refuted within two hours."
