Report: Anti-Israel Event at Columbia University Featured Speakers Who Praised Hamas

New York, NY – May 11, 2018: Alma Mater statue outside of Columbia University library
David Tran/Getty Images

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.”

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