Basil Rodriguez

Basil Rodriguez’s Arrest at the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia)

Basil Rodriguez was arrested while participating in the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia in April 2024.

Basil Rodriguez is a Columbia student who was arrested on April 30, 2024 while forming a human chain with other protesters to block the entrance to a Columbia building taken over by protesters. On June 20, 2024, El Pais news reported that Rodriguez had been charged with criminal trespassing.

Prior to Rodriguez’ arrest on April 30, 2024, Rodriguez said [00:00:05] at a speech at the encampment: “...we demand that they divest from the occupation and stop profiting off of genocide. This is why we protest. This is why our comrades have renamed this building, which sits on stolen indigenous land and is named after a white settler colonizer…”

Rodriguez then led protesters in chanting [00:00:42]: “Resistance is justified, when people face genocide.”

Anti-Israel activists use the term “resistance” to refer to violence and terror perpetrated against Israeli civilians and their allies. It is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence. Anti-Israel activists chant slogans such as: “Resistance by any means necessary!” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” in response to terror attacks.

El Pais news reported that Rodriguez “...wanted to study resistance as a way to repair the wounds left by colonialism” and organized the encampment and a parallel graduation ceremony.

The event, titled: “The People’s Graduation,” was planned by “an independent group of faculty [who] wanted to create a graduation ceremony for their students who have been excluded from campus for peacefully protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza [at the Columbia encampment].”

The ceremony was organized “following the cancellation of [Columbia’s] Universitywide Commencement ceremonies and in the aftermath of the April 18 and April 30 police sweeps of the ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ and occupied Hamilton [Hall].”

On May 6, 2024, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) posted on Instagram: “...STOP BOMBING RAFAH NOW.” The post included a video featuring Rodriguez, who led protesters at the Amsterdam Avenue entrance gate to the Columbia encampment in repeating after her [00:00:11]: “...we must stay focused and united as Columbia University bombs Rafah…”

On May 18, 2024, National Public Radio (NPR) posted an article titled: “Arrested. Ijured. Suspended. Six NYC university students say they’ll keep protesting.” The article quoted Rodriguez: “...I had been at the encampment since day one…”

The encampment was also in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Columbia is located in New York, New York.

Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University

On April 17, 2024, Columbia students and anti-Israel activists set up a pro-Hamas “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the university's main lawn. Many participants were arrested and the encampment featured multiple violent incidents, including taking over a campus building and taking a university worker hostage.

Activists protested Israel’s war against Hamas and demanded that Columbia “divest from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation…”

The action had reportedly been planned for months and was organized by the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition. The encampment was also organized by Columbia’s banned pro-Hamas activist group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the university chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Activists reportedly received training from National SJP and other anti-Israel organizations.

Among the encampment leaders was Columbia student Khymani James who had said [00:00:25]: “Zionists…They are nazis!... They’re supporters of genocide! Why would we want people who are supporters of genocide to live?... Be glad, be grateful that I am not just going out and murdering Zionists.” Aidan Parisi, another encampment leader, responded to Columbia’s demand to disband the encampment by declaring online that: “COLUMBIA WILL BURN.”

The encampment was forcibly dismantled at the directive of Columbia’s president and administration. The NYPD [New York Police Department] entered the area, cleared the encampment and arrested more than 100 protestors, approximately 80 of whom were Columbia students. The students were charged with trespassing and suspended from Columbia indefinitely.

The next day, activists created a new encampment. When divestment negotiations with Columbia failed, protesters illegally forced their way into the university’s Hamilton Hall on April 30, 2024. They smashed [00:00:55] through a glass-paneled door, broke security cameras, threw university property out of the windows and unfurled [00:00:01] a banner in the building’s wall that read: “INTIFADA,” a term in Arabic for uprising or insurrection that carries the connotation of violence.

While barricading themselves in the building, agitators kept three Columbia custodians hostage and stopped them from leaving. When the NYPD raided and dismantled the encampment a second time, they arrested more than 100 students, nearly half of whom were reportedly not affiliated with Columbia.

NYPD shared on Twitter photos of objects the police found in Hamilton Hall. These included knives, hammers, gas masks, ropes and a pamphlet that read [video 1]: “...DISRUPT/RECLAIM/DESTROY zionist business interests everywhere! DEATH TO ISRAELI REAL STATE! DEATH TO AMERICA!...LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA!”

Just outside the encampment area, Jewish students were called [slide 2]: “Uncultured a** b**ches!” and were told to “Go back to Europe!” Activists also said [slide 3] to them: “Yahoodim [Jews], yahoodi [Jew], f**k you!” and “Stop killing children!” as they walked from campus to their dorm rooms.

Also just outside the encampment area, anti-Israel activists chanted [slide 5]: “Ya Hamas, ya habib, odrob, odrob Tel Aviv! [Oh Hamas, oh loved one, strike, strike Tel Aviv!]”, a chant that celebrates Hamas rocket attacks against Israel.

An activist just outside the encampment area held [photo 4] a sign that said, referring to the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing: “AL-QASAM’S NEXT TARGETS.” Her sign contained an arrow pointing to a pro-Israel crowd.

On May 31, 2024, Columbia SJP announced that its activists had set up a third encampment at the university. At the encampment, protesters reportedly displayed on a big screen a video that portrayed Hamas as a peace-seeking organization and made a sign that contained an inverted red triangle, a symbol in support of Hamas.

Background on Pro-Hamas Encampments

The encampment was one of over 140 pro-Hamas and anti-Israel college encampments set up in North America, and over 20 more globally, in the spring of 2024. The first began on April 17, 2024, at Columbia University. The encampments were unofficially known as the “student intifada,” borrowing a term associated with terrorist violence.  

Protesters harassed Jewish students, blocked Jews from campus facilities and shouted anti-Semitic slogans. They occupied campus grounds, in many cases illegally, caused property damage, violently took over buildings, celebrated terrorism and promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. 

Activists set up encampments to oppose Israel’s right to wage war against the Hamas terror group following October 7, 2023, when Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 people, including 32 American and 8 Canadian citizens. Hamas also kidnapped 252 people, including 11 Americans and the bodies of 2 murdered Canadians. As of May 26, 2024, 125 hostages remained in Hamas captivity.

Basil Rodriguez’s Anti-Israel Activism, Work and Education

Basil Rodriguez is a supporter [00:00:05] of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

On April 26, 2024, Al Jazeera English posted on Instagram an interview with Rodriguez who was identified as “the niece of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh” with a note: “While some family members refer to Basil as Shireen’s niece, she is her second cousin’s daughter.”

The post said that Rodriguez “...refers to Shireen as her aunt because of the generational difference.” The post quotes Rodriguez: “I’m here because my aunt gave her life for the cause of sharing the truth with the world.”

Shireen Abu Akleh, an American journalist working for the Al Jazeera Media Network, was accidentally killed while reporting inside an active combat zone on an Israel Defense Force (IDF) operation in the city of Jenin. The Israeli army concluded that Abu Akleh was most likely accidentally killed by one of its soldiers during an exchange of fire between Palestinian terrorists and the IDF.  

As of September 2024, Rodriguez’s LinkedIn profile said Rodriguez was studying for a master’s degree in American Studies at Columbia, slated to graduate in 2025.

Rodriguez’s LinkedIn also said Rodriguez was a researcher at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, since 2023. Rodriguez’s LinkedIn headline said: “Researcher at Asian Media Initiative, Center for Community Media,” which is part of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York (CUNY).

As of September 2024, Rodriguez’s LinkedIn said Rodriguez was located in Brooklyn, New York.