Catherine Curran-Groome

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

On April 18, 2024, Curran-Groome was arrested [00:00:07] at Columbia on the second day of the encampment. Curran-Groome was featured [00:00:07] in an April 19, 2024 YouTube video posted by the Columbia Spectator in which she was being led away by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) Curran Groome joined protesters in chanting while her hands were zip-tied behind her back.

On April 30, 2024, Curran-Groome was arrested again at Columbia and charged with “third-degree criminal trespass…punishable by up to three months in jail, a year of probation and/or up to a $500 fine.”  

Curran-Groome was one of 13 agitators who were arrested at Hamilton Hall and rejected a plea bargain agreement offered by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to dismiss her case. The agitators took over the campus building Hamilton Hall and also took hostages. Curran-Groome was arraigned on May 1, 2024 and “Pled Not Guilty” to the charge. She was slated to appear in the New York Criminal Court on January 24, 2025. 

On April 30, 2024, participants in Columbia’s second pro-Hamas encampment forced their way into the university’s Hamilton Hall, barricading themselves in the building and taking three Columbia custodians hostage. Protesters also vandalized [00:00:55] and destroyed university property inside the hall. A police raid on Hamilton found knives, gas masks, ropes and literature that read: “...DESTROY zionist business interests everywhere!...DEATH TO AMERICA!...”

On April 19, 2024, the New York Times reported that Curran-Groome was one of the students who set up the encampment at Columbia.  

On April 26, 2024, Curran-Groome was featured in a video posted on Instagram at the encampment where a reporter asked [00:00:33]: “Do you believe in Israel’s right to exist as a country?” Curran-Groome responded [00:00:34]: “I believe in all people’s right to freedom and liberation. We are talking about a genocide.” 

She later continued [00:01:02]: “We are calling for a complete divestment by Columbia from any company complicit in Israeli apartheid and colonization in Palestine, and we are calling for amnesty for all of our students.”      

On April 21, 2024, Curran-Groome was featured in an Instagram video speaking at the encampment at Columbia. She said [00:00:02]: “We got another win to announce, for folks who weren’t here earlier this afternoon, we shared that the university has now lost this lawn which is a critical part of their graduation commencement setup, which is costing them thousands of dollars and we will not move. Our graduating students in this encampment will not move until our demands are met. We also just found out as of tomorrow all classes will have an online option because we will not f***ing leave until we get divestment.”  

On April 20, 2024, Curran-Groome was featured in an Instagram video at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. 

On April 18, 2024, Curran-Groome was featured in a video posted on X at the encampment saying [00:00:01]: “...protest Columbia every f***ing day [un]til they divest.” 

On same day, Curran-Groome was featured [00:00:06] in a video posted on X at the encampment. In the video, Curran-Groome was filming the encampment while other activists were being arrested by the NYPD and chanting “Shame on you!”  

On April 17, 2024, FreedomNews TV uploaded a video to YouTube that featured [00:02:44] Curran-Groome speaking at the encampment. 

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.

Catherine Curran-Groome’s Support for Terrorists

On April 24, 2024, the New York Post published an article that named Curran-Groome as one of the “key organizers” of a March 24, 2023 event co-hosted by CUAD, Samidoun and Within Our Lifetime (WOL) titled “Resistance 101.” 

The event was held at Q House, “the LGBTQ+ special interest community at Columbia University.” The organizers i were reportedly unauthorized to use Columbia property for the event, prompting them to move the venue to Q House.