The flag of Israel, spray painted on the Spirit Rocks at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), was defaced Monday, Jan. 31.

cell phone photo taken by rebecca gomez

Israeli flag defaced with red spray paint.

With red spray paint, someone drew an X over the Star of David, wrote the word ‘Herp’ and placed red hand prints to the left of the star.

cell phone photo by rebecca gomez

Work crew removing defacement.

A UT Dallas police officer appeared on the scene at approximately 11.45 a.m. and within 20 minutes dispatched a work crew to remove the defacement.

cell phone photograph by rebecca gomez

Spirit Rock after work crew removed most of the defacement.

We were only able to get cell phone photographs due to the rapid development of this story.