Columbia University, the private Ivy League university in New York City, has been an epicenter for pro-Palestine protests since tensions grew between Hamas and Israel after the terrorist attack on October 7th, 2023. These demonstrations have included numerous encampments on school grounds, with protestors calling for the university to divest from Israel and instances of anti-Israel rhetoric. In the spring of 2024, the first official encampment occurred on Columbia’s campus, beginning with about 50 students known as the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), whose primary demand was for the university to cut financial ties with Israel. CUAD has continued to make disturbing remarks regarding Israel and the people who support an independent state of Israel. Further, CUAD has recently made a shocking retraction to one of the anti-Semitic statements made in April.
In January of 2024, Khymani James, a member of CUAD, said in an Instagram live video that “Zionists don’t deserve to live comfortably, let alone Zionists don’t deserve to live” (A zionist is “a person who believes in the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel,” according to the Oxford Dictionary). James continued to say that his fellow community members should “be grateful that [he’s] not just going out and murdering Zionists.” At this moment, it became clear that there was a deeper objective behind the CUAD; not only were they calling for the divestment from Israel, but their values included a genuine hatred for Jewish people and the state of Israel. After James made his statement, it was evident that Columbia was becoming a host site for detestable anti-Semitic rhetoric and a place where students speak of employing violent acts of terror on a group of people.
James was barred from campus in April after the video resurfaced and attracted widespread attention. Days after the resurgence of the video, CUAD issued an apology on behalf of James. “When I recorded it, I had been feeling unusually upset after an online mob targeted me because I am visibly queer and Black,” said CUAD in James’ name. This apology, much more a defense rather than a sincere confession, reflects the values of many members of the CUAD anti-Israel group at Columbia. Rather than owning up to their anti-Semitic rhetoric, the writers of the apology decided to defend their wrongdoings with factors, like the race and sexuality of the offender, that aren’t at play. “CUAD and the Gaza Solidarity Encampment have made clear that my words in January, prior to my involvement in CUAD, are not in line with the CUAD community guidelines. I agree with their assessment,” the CUAD statement said, according to the Columbia Spectator. “Those words do not represent CUAD. They also do not represent me.” At first, it seemed as though this apology could be the start of bridging the gap between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel supporters. However, this glimmer of hope was instantly shattered on October 8th, 2024, when CUAD rescinded its apology.
The day before CUAD withdrew their apology, on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ invasion of Israel that left over 1,200 Israelis dead, pro-Palestinian students led by CUAD orchestrated a protest walkout involving at least one sign with red triangles, a symbol Hamas used on their October 7, 2023, attack to identify Israeli targets. One day after the walkout, James posted the resignation tweet on X: “I never wrote the neo-liberal apology posted in late April, and I’m glad we’ve set the record straight once and for all. I will not allow anyone to shame me for my politics. Anything I said, I meant it.” James points out that the apology made in April was written by CUAD and did not align with his personal “politics.” The absence of sympathy and the explicit call for violence against Jewish people became even more evident when CUAD contradicted their previous apology in an October 8, 2024, statement: “We support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance,” the group said. “Where you’ve exhausted all peaceful means of resolution, violence is the only path forward.”
In opposition to the statement, Katrina Armstrong, Interim President of Columbia University, said, “statements advocating for violence or harm are antithetical to the core principles upon which this institution was founded. This has seemed so fundamental that it did not require saying; to hear such things in our community is an aberration, whether or not protected by the First Amendment. We must be clear: calls for violence have no place at this or any university.”
This apology revocation is a harrowing sign that anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism don’t have a foreseeable end. Anti-Semitic narratives and beliefs still exist, undoubtedly right here in New York City. Regardless of which side of the Israel-Palestine conflict you support, calling for the annihilation of an entire nation is abhorrent and could never be justified. James describes CUAD’s demonstrations as “peaceful protest” but synchronously states that “violence is the only path forward.” How can true peacemakers align with a group that contradicts themselves and relates peace and genocide within their set of values? It is indisputable that the war in Gaza has been devastating for all parties involved, but it is also evident that it has amplified Jew hatred in our country. The recent repeal of the apology issued by CUAD in April 2024 is a profoundly saddening example of anti-Semitism today.
