Anti-Israeli graffiti
(Photo : ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP via Getty Images)
Pro-Palestinian protesters at a rally California State University in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Demonstrators stood in the way of a contractor hired to cover up anti-Israeli graffiti on the campus of Case Western Reserve University on Tuesday. When they refused to move, the worker painted over them. 

A contractor hired to paint over anti-Israeli graffiti at an Ohio university defied pro-Palestinian protesters who stood guard over the wall they vandalized and splashed them with paint, according to reports.

The worker sprayed paint over the protesters and the graffiti on the "Spirit Wall" at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland on Tuesday, the New York Post reported.

The wall had been covered with "threatening, intimidating and antisemitic" language, university president Eric Kaler said.

When the third-party contractor approached the wall, protesters blocked his way, the report said. 

As he began covering up the graffiti, three protesters refused to move.

When he neared them, they put on protective face masks and he doused them with the white paint. 

The pro-Palestinian protesters at the Ohio school established an encampment like many at other educational institutions across the country in solidarity with one that was set up at Columbia University in New York City last month to protest the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.