Pro-Palestinian groups at Columbia University hosted an event Sunday that included speakers who praised Hamas and armed “resistance” against Israel, leading to an investigation at a campus already rocked by anti-Israel protests.
The New York Jewish Week reported:
The event on Sunday, titled “Resistance 101,” was led by Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of student organizations. The two lead groups in the coalition are the school’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace, which have been suspended from campus for violating university protest policies.
During the event, speakers repeatedly backed Palestinian “resistance,” which in their view included open support for Hamas. One of the speakers, Khaled Barakat, a Palestinian writer and activist, referred to his “friends and brothers in Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PFLP,” according to a video of the entire event posted on X, formerly Twitter, by user Stu Smith.
“When they see students organizing outside Palestine, they really feel that they are being backed as a resistance,” said Barakat, who is based in Canada. “Your work is so important to the resistance in Gaza.”
Independent journalist Stu Smith recorded the meeting, which was held by video, and posted it on Twitter (or X).
Here is my recording of the "Resistance 101” event hosted by Columbia University Apartheid Divest which features speakers from Within Our Lifetime, Masar Badil, and Samidoun.
— Stu (@thestustustudio) March 25, 2024
In a world where radicalism thrives on college campuses, I believe in radical transparency. pic.twitter.com/jRuSaY1VOq
If there was any doubt...
— Stu (@thestustustudio) March 26, 2024
"When I speak to my friends and brothers in Hamas Islamic Jihad you know the PFLP in Gaza these days, especially after October 7th, we talk about different things that has nothing to do with our movement... when they see students organizing outside… pic.twitter.com/x1MwrImkma
(The reference by Barakat to his “friends” in Hamas in the clip below occurs at 1:16:24 in the full video above.)
Another speaker rejected a two-state solution, saying that what activists were “fighting for” was “every single inch of Palestine, from the river to the sea.” She added that the Palestinian struggle was also about “all oppressed people.”
In December, the Columbia School of Social Work saw Columbia students hold an event supporting Palestinian terrorism, which took place despite public statements by the university that the event would be canceled.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
