David Chung

David Chung’s Arrest in January 2024 & Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia) in April 2024

David Chung [David Sung Mo Chung] was arrested at an anti-Israel rally in January 2024 during Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists. He also participated in the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia in April 2024.

Chung helped lead and participated in multiple anti-Israel rallies in late 2023 and 2024 in New York, New York, as the general manager of The People’s Forum (TPF).

Chung’s activism during this time included a rally one day after Hamas terror atrocities and war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023. The terror attacks left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”

As of September 2024, Chung served as the organizing director at TPF.

In January 2024, a “Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint” was filed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) against TPF. The complaint accused TPF founder and executive director Manolo De Los Santos and TPF of “advocating in support of US designated foreign terror organization Hamas” and advocating “for the overthrow of the U.S. Government.”

As of the same date, Chung was a board member of the Justice and Education Fund (JEF).

As of October 2024, Chung’s LinkedIn profile said he received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Hunter College (Hunter), part of the City University of New York (CUNY), in 2014.

As of the same date, Chung’s LinkedIn said he was located in New York, New York.

1/20/2024 Arrested at a Pro-Hamas Rally

On January 20, 2024, Chung was arrested during a “Shut It Down For Palestine” rally held at J. Hood Wright Park in New York City. Chung was arrested with fellow TPF leaders Claudia De la Cruz, Manolo De Los Santos and Layan Fuleihan.

Participating in Pro-Hamas Rallies

On October 8, 2023, Chung participated [00:14:08] in a pro-Hamas rally in New York City’s Times Square titled: “All Out For Palestine” and co-sponsored by The People’s Forum (TPF).

At the rally, Chung stood with TPF rally speaker Layan Fuleihan as she chanted [00:00:10]: “Intifada! Intifada! Long live the intifada!”

The term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” carries the connotation of violence. Palestinian intifadas waged against Israel have been marked since 1987 by hundreds of hijackings, shootings, stabbings, bombings and suicide missions.

On October 8, 2023, the anti-Israel groups Al-Awda and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) joined with other groups in New York City for a rally in support of the previous day’s Hamas terror attacks on Israeli civilians.

Activists repeatedly celebrated the mass murder of Israeli civilians. They stomped on [00:00:01] and burned [00:00:21] Israeli flags. Speakers led [00:17:43] calls for Israel’s violent destruction and celebrated [00:20:45] Hamas firing rockets at Israeli cities and the taking [00:27:27] of hostages.

On November 9, 2023, Chung participated [slide 4] in a “Shut It Down for Palestine” rally at the headquarters [00:00:14] of the BlackRock Inc. investment company in New York City.

On the same day, TPF issued a statement that said: “We have gathered at the company’s headquarters on 50 Hudson Yards, to demand BlackRock end its complicity in Israel’s genocidal violence against Palestinians. We demand a ceasefire now, an end to all aid to Israel, and an end to the 16-year siege on Gaza.” The statement also accused BlackRock CEO Larry Fink of being “an outspoken supporter of the apartheid regime in Israel.”

Israel and Egypt implemented a UN-approved [pp. 39–41] joint blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2011 to stop Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated rockets. Hamas went around the blockade by smuggling weaponry through tunnels under the Philadelphi corridor separating Gaza from Egypt.

On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 2,900 heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation.

Hamas broadcast videos of their butchery on social media, often to victims’ accounts for families to see. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.” As of November 10, 2023, approximately 1,200 Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians, were murdered during the attacks. Hamas kidnapped 242 Israelis, including at least 30 children. At least 3,500 people were wounded, many severely.

A terrorist detained by Israel admitted he raped an Israeli woman when he broke into a kibbutz house during the October 7, 2023 attack. In March 2024, a former hostage of Hamas publicly stated she was sexually abused and tortured while in captivity.

For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.

On December 2, 2023, Chung spoke at an anti-Israel rally in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, co-organized by mulitple groups, including the Al-Awda-NY Palestine Right to Return Coalition and TPF.

On December 16, 2023, Chung helped lead an anti-Israel “Shut It Down for Palestine” rally at Herald Square in New York City titled: “March for the Martyrs.” The protest was reportedly organized “to protest US financial, political, and military support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”

Protesters at the rally chanted [00:00:01]: “One, two, three, four, occupation no more. Five, six, seven, eight, Israel is a terrorist state!” and “From the River to the Sea! Palestine will be Free!”

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is a chant used [00:02:47] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state. In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic.

Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia

On April 25, 2024, Chung was featured in a YouTube video participating [00:27:53] in the Columbia encampment. In the video, Chung can be seen wearing a keffiyeh, while chanting with other anti-Israel activists: “No Justice! No Peace! You f**king racist police!”

On April 17, 2024, Columbia students and anti-Israel activists set up a pro-Hamas encampment on campus to protest Israel’s war against Hamas and promote BDS. The encampment was forcibly dismantled and approximately 80 Columbia students were arrested.

A new Columbia encampment was erected, during which participants forced their way into the university’s Hamilton Hall, vandalizing [00:00:55] and destroying university property. They barricaded themselves in the building, taking three Columbia custodians hostage. An NYPD raid on the building found knives, gas masks, ropes and literature that read: “...DESTROY zionist business interests everywhere!...DEATH TO AMERICA!...”

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

Columbia is located in New York, New York.

BDS

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.

One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”

Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”

In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”

The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.

BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.

The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.

Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.

BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.