Fadi Shuman

Fadi Shuman’s Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia) and Arrest at Anti-Israel Rally

Fadi Shuman participated in the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia in April 2024. He was arrested at an anti-Israel rally during Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in February 2024. Shuman spread hatred of Israel as a speaker at a rally later that month, held in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As of February 2024, Shuman was affiliated with the pro-terror activist group Within Our Lifetime (WOL).

As of the same date, Shuman was also affiliated with anti-Israel campus groups, Students fo Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

Shuman’s activism took place during Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists. Israel launched the war, called called “Swords of Iron,” after a series of Hamas terror attacks and war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings. The atrocities were executed on October 7, 2023, and left approximately 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded.

Hamas is a designated terrorist organization founded in 1987 that is dedicated to destroying Israel and killing Jews. Since 2001, Hamas has launched thousands of rockets at Israel and on October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped over 200 hostages, including children and the elderly.

As of October 2024, Shuman was listed as a professional mixed martial arts (Pro MMA) fighter.

Also as of October 2024, Shuman was listed in the Columbia online directory as a student in the School of General Studies, Department of Computer Science. He is reportedly slated to graduate in 2026.

Columbia is located in New York, New York.

2/2/2024 – Arrested at an Anti-Israel Rally

On February 2, 2024, during Israel’s war against Hamas, Shuman participated in and was arrested [00:00:25] at a rally titled: “All Out For Palestine at Columbia University.” The pro-terror activist group Within Our Lifetime (WOL) held the rally on Columbia’s campus.

In one of the videos from the protest, Shuman can be seen removing [00:00:48] a police officer’s cap from his head.

The New York Police Department reportedly arrested Shuman at the protest on suspicion of “grand larceny, obstructing governmental administration, aggravated harassment, and criminal possession of stolen property.” Shuman’s attorney confirmed he was facing “one count of obstructing governmental administration in the second degree.”

The rally was reportedly co-organized by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a pro-BDS coalition of “over 80 student groups working toward the goal of collective liberation.” CUAD began in 2016 but was revived in late 2023 during Israel’s war against Hamas when Columbia suspended its Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapters for violating school policies.

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.

2/8/2024 - Hatred of Israel during a Hamas War

On February 8, 2024, Shuman was reportedly a featured speaker at a CUAD event titled: “Walkout, Art Build, and Student-Led March for Gaza.”

At the event, Shuman said: “Until there’s an end to the genocide and total liberation of Palestinian land, we will refuse to be silent.”

During the event, protesters painted phrases, such as “Columbia $upports racist violence” and “Columbia University is complicit,” on their Columbia sweaters, shirts and tote bags, in reference to Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists.

Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia

On April 19, 2024, BreakThrough News uploaded a video to YouTube featuring [06:07:08] Shuman participating in the Columbia encampment. The encampment was also in support of the BDS movement.

On April 22, 2024, Shuman was featured [slide 5] in an Instagram photo participating the Columbia encampment. He can be seen in the photo wearing a keffiyeh. The Instagram post said: “The energy on Day 3 at the student divest action encampment at Columbia University was palpable

…Traditional Palestinian dance followed by Chants led by the WoL [Within Our Lifetime] members…”

The watermelon has been appropriated by anti-Israel activists as a symbol of Palestinian "resistance" to "Israeli occupation," as it shares the Pan-Arab colors.

On April 23, 2024, LLN NYC uploaded a video to YouTube featuring [00:25:54] Shuman participating in a protest in support of the encampment outside the Columbia campus. The video was titled: “4th Night of Palestine Protests at Columbia University NYC 4.21.24.”

On May 1, 2024, @CampusJewHate posted on X: “Another fixture of the ‘peaceful’ protests is Fadi Shuman. A former MMA fighter who has been intimidating Jewish students on campus for months. / He was also arrested in clashes with police back in February. / Numerous complaints have been filed to the university. / On April 17, he spilled hot coffee on a photographer in the ‘liberated zone’ [Columbia encampment] / As of Monday, he was still on campus…”

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!...”

WOL

Within Our Lifetime (WOL) is a pro-terror activist group in New York City dedicated to Israel’s destruction within the lifetime of its members.

Acts of violence and physical confrontations with police have frequently occurred at WOL protests and marches. WOL uses harassment campaigns to target pro-Israel organizations or companies that do business with Israel, making it a part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Multiple activists who have either burned Israeli flags or led chants at WOL rallies were later jailed for violent anti-Semitic hate crimes, including Saadah Masoud and Waseem Awawdeh. In Masoud’s case, he received 18 months in jail for an anti-Semitic assault at an April 2022 WOL rally and two other anti-Semitic assaults in 2021.

WOL promotes “resistance” against Israel “by any means necessary,” calls to “Globalize the Intifada,” spreads incitement and idolizes [00:34:06] Palestinian terrorists like Leila Khaled and others at rallies and online events.

WOL was founded by Nerdeen Kiswani and Dan Cione in 2015. Kiswani is a frequent speaker at WOL rallies where she has promoted terrorism against Israelis and called for the death of Zionists. She has also provided support for Masoud and other activists following their arrests.

WOL began as the New York City chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), going by NYC SJP, but changed its name in 2018. The group is not found to be registered in any U.S. state as a nonprofit organization under its official name. Nor is there any listing for WOL under its name on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website for tax-exempt organizations.

SJP

SJP is a student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses.

The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian. Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group. In 2004, Bazian called for “intifada” in America.

SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks, often in collaboration with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Muslim Student Association (MSA) campus chapters.

SJP has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses. Chapters have initiated dozens of BDS resolutions in student governments, which have been proposed on or around Jewish holidays, a time when many Jewish students are off-campus.

SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, disrupted pro-Israel campus events and demonized pro-Israel campus organizations.

Chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and whitewashed terrorism.

JVP

JVP was founded in Berkeley, California in 1996, as an activist group with an emphasis on the “Jewish tradition” of peace, social justice and human rights. The organization is currently led by Rebecca Vilkomerson and its board members include Israel critics Naomi Klein, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky and Tony Kushner.

JVP, which generally employs civil disobedience tactics to disrupt pro-Israel speakers and events, consists of American Jews and non-Jewish “allies” highly critical of Israeli policies. A staunch supporter of the BDS movement, JVP claims to aim its campaigns at companies that either support the Israeli military (Hewlett-Packard) or are active in the West Bank (SodaStream).

Although several Jewish groups critical of Israeli policies, like J Street and Partners for a Progressive Israel, make efforts to operate within the mainstream American Jewish community, JVP functions outside. The group is often criticized for serving as a tokenized Jewish voice for the pro-Palestinian camp and is widely regarded as the BDS movement’s “Jewish wing.”

JVP denies the notion of “Jewish peoplehood” and has even gone so far as to refer to its own Ashkenazi (Jews who spent the Diaspora in European countries) leadership as “white supremacy inside of JVP.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused JVP of being “the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States,” and said the group “exploits Jewish culture and rituals to reassure its own supporters that opposition to Israel not only does not contradict, but is actually consistent with, Jewish values.”

The ADL also claimed that “JVP consistently co-sponsors rallies to oppose Israeli military policy that are marked by signs and slogans comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, demonizing Jews and voicing support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.”

According to the ADL website, JVP “uses its Jewish identity to shield the anti-Israel movement from allegations of anti-Semitism and provide it with a greater degree of legitimacy and credibility.”

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.