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Jude Taha
Jude Taha’s Support for the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia)
Jude Taha showed support for the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia in April 2024. The encampment was also in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
In an April 22, 2023 interview with Columbia School of Journalism alumna Jude Taha, the anti-Israel publication Democracy Now quoted her as saying: “me and a few other journalists have been reporting on [the Columbia anti-Israel protests] for months now…And we were present from day one, from nearly 6:00 in the morning, in the original encampment.”
The introduction to the same Democracy Now article said: “Palestinian reporter Jude Taha, a journalism student at Columbia University, describes events on campus as ‘an unprecedented act of solidarity’ that student organizers are modeling on antiwar protests in 1968.”
On April 23, 2024, Taha appeared [00:09:23] in a YouTube video of a press conference called by the student protesters outside Columbia’s President's Mansion. Taha can be seen at the extreme right of the video wearing a pink shirt and a black jacket, setting up news reporting equipment.
Taha was featured [00:00:03] in an April 25, 2024, Instagram video taken that day at the Columbia encampment. Taha can be seen on the left, behind anti-Israel congresswoman Ilhan Omar, holding a camera.
On October 5, 2024, Taha was listed on Instagram as a collaborator on a project titled: “Occupation No More.” The post described it as “a collaborative project by 15 Columbia alums including never-before-seen footage, photos, and soundbites from the two weeks of the encampment…”
The post continued: “As…the anniversary of Oct 7 approaches, we think it’s important to tell the story of what happened on campus last semester in our own words…”
On October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis, kidnapped hundreds and wounded thousands. War crimes included mass rape and torture. Many Palestinian civilians participated in and supported the attacks, and Gazans working in the targeted Israeli communities gave intelligence to Hamas on where to strike.
For more information, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
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.
In an April 22, 2023 interview with Jude Taha, Democracy Now identified her as a “Palestinian reporter… [and] a journalism student at Columbia University.” As of November 2024, Taha’s LinkedIn profile said she graduated with a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia in June 2024.
As of November 2024, Taha’s Instagram bio said she was a faculty lecturer at the Jordan Media Institute in Amman, Jordan.
