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Lillian House
Lillian House Led a Rally in Support of the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia) & House’s Arrest during Israel’s War against Hamas & Kidnapping Charges
Lillian House is a socialist activist who was arrested multiple times. She helped organize anti-Israel protests at Columbia University (Columbia), where she was not a student, in 2024.
In 2020, House was arrested and faced “attempted first-degree kidnapping charges” in her activism with the Party for Socialism & Liberation (PSL). She has been a PSL organizer since at least 2017. She was a PSL activist in January 2024, when she was arrested for her anti-Israel activism during Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists.
In April 2024, during the Columbia protests, House granted an interview with Fox News where she refused [00:01:09] to acknowledge the Hamas atrocities and war crimes of October 7, 2023, against Israeli Jews. She also dismissed [00:00:59] as “a false narrative” the assertion by Jewish students that they felt unsafe at Columbia.
As of April 2024, House was reportedly an organizer with Shut It Down for Palestine, which had been involved in organizing anti-Israel protests at Columbia.
House has also spread hatred of Israel on social media. She is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
As of May 2024, House’s online resume stated that she attended Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) from August 2012 through August 2015.
Also as of May 2024, House went by the username “Lillian Casa” on Facebook.
On January 20, 2024, during Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists, House was reportedly arrested for her role as one of the “leading organizers of many pro-Palestine actions in New York City.”
The arrest took place while House was participating in a protest that was purportedly “against the US-Israeli genocide on the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
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.
In September 2020, House was arrested and held in jail for eight days in Aurora, Colorado, for her role as a PSL organizer in leading several demonstrations protesting the killing of Elijah McClain. McClain was a 23-year-old Black man who died as a result of being “illegally injected” with a sedative by paramedics after being forcibly detained by police officers.
House reportedly faced “multiple felony charges and years in prison” in connection with the protests, which were held in Aurora in June and July 2020.
During a July 3, 2020 protest, demonstrators surrounded an Aurora police precinct “for about seven hours,” barring the doors and blocking off the streets surrounding the building.
Protestors allegedly “unlawfully and feloniously attempted to imprison or forcibly secrete 18 officers with the intent to force them or another person to make a concession to secure their release.”
As a result of the July 3, 2020 incident, House faced “attempted first-degree kidnapping charges.” Other charges filed against House included felony theft, inciting and engaging in a riot, obstructing a highway or passageway, attempting to influence a public servant and obstructing government operations.
On September 27, 2020, after House’s eight-day imprisonment, she gave a speech at the Denver State House, Colorado’s State Capitol. She said [00:00:23]: “I got a warrant out for me still that they will not quash!...We will not be silenced!”
House ended her speech by leading [00:09:27] the chant: “No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace!” several times.
On April 26, 2024, The Columbia Spectator reported that House led a Shut It Down for Palestine protest that took place in support of the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” at Columbia.
During the protest, House distributed signs that read: “Palestine will be free,” “End the occupation now,” and “End all US aid to Israel.” Anti-Israel activists at the rally chanted: “Columbia, you can’t hide! You get rich off genocide!” and “Israel will fall!”
The anti-Israel encampment at Columbia began earlier that month.
On April 29, 2024, The Spectator, Columbia’s student newspaper, reported that House had been protesting at Columbia “since the encampment began and organizing in support of Palestinian liberation for the past seven months.”
House was also reported as saying: “I feel very hopeful seeing the surge that [the encampment] has caused all across the country.” She also praised the Columbia students participating in the encampment, saying that “their bravery and their firmness…is really a beacon to students everywhere.”
Another one of the signs that Shut It Down For Palestine distributed said: “LIFT THE SIEGE ON GAZA NOW!”
The United Nations approved [pp. 39–41] the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza in 2011 as a security measure to stop Hamas from acquiring sophisticated rockets. Multiple flotillas have attempted to breach the blockade, with at least one initiating a violent confrontation with Israeli forces.
Following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the Israeli military discovered that Hamas went around the blockade by smuggling weaponry through tunnels under the Philadelphi corridor separating Gaza from Egypt.
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.
On April 30, 2024, Fox News conducted an interview at Columbia with House about the campus protests and encampment. In the interview, she refused to acknowledge the Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023. She also dismissed as “a false narrative” that Jewish students felt unsafe.
When the reporter asked [00:00:25] House’s opinion on the agitators who took over the Hamilton Hall academic building, she said [00:00:31]: “Their cause is a just cause.”
The reporter then asked [00:00:37] House if it was right for the Columbia students to “hold three of the janitor workers hostage within inside of the building.”
House replied [00:00:43]: “I think that’s a really false narrative.”
When the reporter reminded [00:00:46] House that the custodians claimed they were not allowed to leave Hamilton Hall.
House responded [00:00:49]: “I think that that’s a really false narrative.”
The reporter then reminded [00:00:52] House again about the custodians.
House responded [00:00:55]: “I think that it’s a really false narrative that the students took anyone hostage.”
When the reporter reminded [00:00:46] House that the custodians claimed they were not allowed to leave Hamilton Hall, House responded [00:00:49]: “I think that that’s a really false narrative.”
The reporter then reminded [00:00:52] House again about the custodians, House responded [00:00:55]: “I think that it’s a really false narrative that the students took anyone hostage.”
The reporter then asked [00:00:59] House how she felt about “some of the Jewish students saying that they don’t feel safe” on Columbia’s campus.
House replied [00:01:04]: “I think that this is also a really false narrative that’s being promoted.”
Next, the reporter asked [00:01:09] House if she thought the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack was “a false narrative.” He asked her: “Do you believe that some of the women were raped?”
House refused to answer the questions, saying [00:01:18] to the reporter: “Can you get out of my face, please?”
On May 17, 2021, during Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW) against terrorists in Gaza, House posted on Facebook: “...the US empire is sponsoring the Israeli apartheid regime's slaughter of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza open-air prison.”
In May 2021, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists fired over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at major population centers in Israel. Israel responded by launching OGW, carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza.
Referring to Gaza as an “open-air prison” is a way to delegitimize the UN-approved [pp. 39–41] joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip imposed in 2011 to prevent Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated rockets. Following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the Israeli military discovered that Hamas went around the blockade by smuggling weaponry through tunnels under the Philadelphi corridor separating Gaza from Egypt.
On May 15, 2021, House updated her Facebook cover photo to one of anti-Israel activists holding a sign that said: “Stand with Palestinian People’s Resistance! STOP U.S. Funding of Israeli Apartheid.” The sign was from a May 14, 2021, anti-Israel march and rally that took place in Denver, Colorado.
Anti-Israel activists use the term “resistance” to refer to violence and terror perpetrated against Israeli civilians and their allies. It is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence. Anti-Israel activists chant slogans such as: “Resistance by any means necessary!” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” in response to terror attacks.
On May 13, 2021, also during OGW, House promoted on Facebook the May 14, 2021 Denver rally. The protest was co-organized by the anti-Israel organization Jewish Voice For Peace (JVP).
In the post, House wrote: “...We in the US have a special responsibility to stand with Palestine because our country provides crucial funding to the Israeli apartheid state. We have a duty to speak up and fight to build a mass movement to end US aid to Israel! Join people all over the country and the world and stand with Palestine!”
On May 11, 2021, during OGW, House wrote on Facebook: “Israeli brutality and forced displacement of Palestinians is nothing new; in fact, it is inseparable from the Israeli project…Mass ethnic cleansing by means of massacre and other forms of terror has been a constant tool of the Israeli state…#FreePalestine.”
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by pro-terror activist Omar Barghouti in 2005 to turn “Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.” Barghouti has also called for Israel's destruction and the BDS movement demands would result in that same goal.
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 infiltrating university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments propose resolutions to boycott or divestment from Israel or Israeli-affiliated entities. 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 and pro-terror activism on campus.
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