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Isra Hirsi
Isra Hirsi’s Arrest at the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia)
Isra Hirsi was arrested at the pro-Hamas encampment she helped organize at Columbia in April 2024. Hirsi has also expressed support for terrorism and spread hatred of Israel.
Isra Hirsi is a student at Barnard College (Barnard) who posted on April 18, 2024: “...i just received notice that i am 1 of 3 students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.”
On April 21, 2024, Teen Vogue magazine, in an interview titled: “Isra Hirsi, Ilhan Omar’s Daughter, On Columbia Arrests, Barnard Suspension, Palestine Protests,” reported that Hirsi had been arrested on April 18, 2024, along with Soph Askanase and Maryam Iqbal.
Ilhan Omar was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2018. In February 2019, top Congressional leaders denounced Omar for tweeting anti-Semitic remarks.
In the Teen Vogue interview Hirsi was quoted saying: “...Wednesday, we set up at the crack of dawn……We had such an amazing crowd come and join us Wednesday night, which was so powerful…I woke up at 9 am. I was helping with security, standing by the door to see who enters and exits…” I
Hirsi continued: “...we got notice they were about to come in. We got into our formation, which was two concentric circles, linked arms, and prepared for arrest. that’s when the police came…and then they arrested us.”
On April 24, 2024, after her suspension from Columbia, Hirsi appeared [slide 7] in a video at the encampment, next to her mother.
On May 1, 2024, the Middle East Eye news site published an interview with Hirsi who said [00:00:16], referring to her participation at the Columbia encampment: “...this felt like it was in my destiny being a student at a university, paying money at this university, paying taxes that are complicit in genocide.”
Hirsi also said [00:02:40]: “As somebody who is complicit, I had to do something about it and with that, that became doing this peaceful encampment.”
The encampment was also in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Columbia is located in New York, New York.
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.
The Columbia encampment reportedly inspired a wave of protest encampments across North American campuses, where pro-Israel students were blocked or restricted from campus facilities. Jewish students were reportedly harassed in several other ways.
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.
For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
On October 7, 2024, on the first anniversary of Hamas’ terror attack on Israel, another user posted on X: “Ilhan Omar daughter leading the charge…” The post included a screenshot of the Columbia campus taken from Hirsi’s Instagram, captioned: “resistance is glorious, We will be victorious!"
Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” is a euphemism for nationalistic terror and is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence.
Also on October 7, 2024, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), an anti-Israel coalition for which Hirsi served [00:00:49] as an organizer, promoted on Instagram an event titled: “OCTOBER 7 / WALKOUT.” The post said: “...After an entire year of uninterrupted genocide…it is our duty to act, to resist…WALK OUT…join the movement for Palestinian liberation.”
Sponsored by the anti-Israel organization, Within Our Lifetime (WOL), the graphic included in the post said: “no school, no work, no business as usual.”
During the walkout, protesters chanted [video; 00:00:01]: “Resistance is glorious! We will be victorious!” and held [video; 00:00:35] yellow signs that read: “GLORY TO THE MARTYRS. VICTORY TO THE RESISTANCE.” Protesters also chanted [00:00:42]: “Intifada, intifada! Globalize 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.
Also on October 7, 2024, CUAD posted on Instagram a video of the protest and wrote: “...We must recognize our liberations as connected and bring the war home. The Palestinian resistance is moving their struggle to a new phase of escalation, and it is our duty to meet them there…WALKOUT NOW! JOIN US! JOIN THE MOVEMENT FOR A FREE PALESTINE!”
For more information on the anti-Israel movement’s war on America, check Canary Mission’s campaign “Bringing the War Home.”
Hirsi reposted an October 7, 2023 post on X from anti-Israel agitator Mohammed El-Kurd that said: “What is happening in occupied Palestine is a response to weeks and months and years of daily Israeli military invasions into Palestinian towns, killings of Palestinians, and the very fact that millions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are besieged under Israeli blockade.”
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 November 10, 2023, Hirsi posted on X: “i am ashamed of @Columbia and their decision to censure peaceful student groups…students are uniting against an apartheid system, genocide, and @Columbia’s…funding thereof...”
On November 10, 2023, the Columbia Spectator student newspaper, in an article titled: “Columbia suspends SJP and JVP following ‘unauthorized’ Thursday walkout,” reported: “The University suspended…the Columbia chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace, cutting off the groups’ University funding and eligibility to hold on-campus events through the end of the fall term…”
The article said that “the suspension is the result of ‘repeatedly violated University policies related to holding campus events.’” The article said the groups held unauthorized events that ‘proceeded despite warnings and included threatening rhetoric and intimidation.’”
In April 2024, Hirsi posted on X: “i’m an organizer with CU Apartheid Divest @ColumbiaSJP…”
Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) is a pro-BDS coalition of “over 80 student groups working toward the goal of collective liberation.” CUAD was founded in 2016 and revived in October 2023. Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (ColumbiaSJP) has had an X account since 2010, and its description says: “Long live Hind’s Hall, long live the student intifada, glory to our martyrs. Fighting until divestment, liberation & return. 🇵🇸 🔻…”
The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. International law mandates no absolute right of return and UN Resolution 194, which defined principles for “refugees wishing to return to their homes,” was unanimously rejected by Arab nations following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
The inverted red triangle is a symbol showing support for Hamas and Palestinian terrorism. It was first used by Hamas during the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks to signify an Israeli target.
As of November 2024, Hirsi’s LinkedIn profile said she was pursuing a degree in sociology at Barnard College (Barnard), part of Columbia, and was slated to graduate in May 2025.
As of November 2024, Hirsi’s LinkedIn said she was located in New York, New York.
