Lisa Fithian

Overview

Lisa Fithian is a professional agitator who instructed anti-Israel activists during a violent campus encampment at Columbia University (Columbia) in April 2024.

Fithian has been arrested dozens of times and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Fithian’s activism occurred during Israel’s war against Hamas, called “Swords of Iron.” Israel launched the war after a series of Hamas terror attacks 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.” For more information, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, European Union, Israel and other countries. Founded in 1987, it has killed thousands of Israeli civilians through mass shootings and suicide bombings. Hamas has also kidnapped children, families and the elderly and held them hostage in Gaza. It has desecrated [slide 2] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.

In April 2024, Fithian served [00:00:04] as a “non-violent direct action trainer” for the participants of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), an international movement working to end the naval blockade of Gaza.

Israel and Egypt implemented a United Nations-approved [pp. 39–41] joint blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2011 to stop Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated rockets.

In 2003, Fithian engaged [p. 2] in anti-Israel activism with a pro-terror activist group International Solidarity Movement (ISM).

As of the same date, Fithian’s Facebook About page said she graduated from Skidmore College (Skidmore) with a bachelor’s degree in social work in 1983.

As of June 2024, Fithian’s Facebook said she was located in Chatham, New York.

April 2024 - Instructing Protesters at Columbia Anti-Israel Campus Encampment

In April 2024, Fithian instructed [00:00:01] anti-Israel protesters on how to barricade themselves in an academic building after they had taken it over. The event occurred during the anti-Israel encampment protest on the Columbia campus.

In one video clip, Fithian appeared to be instructing anti-Israel activists who took over Columbia’s academic building and barricaded inside. Fithian told [00:00:01] them as they moved a table to block the entrance door: “I can’t help with that. You guys can help with that!"

Fithian then instructed [00:00:30] the protesters: “You can tie it right to the lock!” as they held zip ties.

In a video clip released by the New York Police Department (NYPD), Fithian said [00:00:05], referring to pro-Israel counter-protesters: “We’re trying to document them being a**holes.”

Fithian appeared next to protesters that chanted [00:00:01]: “5,6,7,8, Israel is a terrorist state! 1,2,3,4, occupation no more!”

Fithian also appeared [00:00:30] next to anti-Israel protesters at the entrance of a Columbia academic building they had taken over and barricaded in.

When two counter-protesters attempted to stand in the way of the anti-Israel activists, Fithian reportedly instructed others to document them by saying: “We are trying to document them acting like scum…They’re trying to push the protestors away from the building. It’s ridiculous. This is a historic moment. We’re trying to put an end to the genocide in Gaza.”

On April 17, 2024, Columbia students and anti-Israel activists set up what they called the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the university's main lawn. Participants 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, as well as Columbia’s banned pro-terror groups Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). The Columbia activists reportedly consulted with and received training from National SJP and other anti-Israel organizations.

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 students. They were also charged with trespassing and suspended from Columbia indefinitely.

Two days later, 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 and threw university property out of the windows.

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!” The term “Intifada” is Arabic for uprising or insurrection, and carries the connotation of violence.

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. Some were told [00:00:02] to “go back to Poland” and [slide 3]: “Yahoodim [Jews], yahoodi [Jew], f**k you!” as they walked from campus to their dorm rooms.

Anti-Israel Activism (ISM)

In April 2024, Fithian provided [00:00:08] training for the FFC participants in Istanbul, Turkey. During the training, she wore a black shirt that read [00:01:08]: “LIBERATE PALESTINE.”

Fithian’s website said that she “offered trainings to the and participated in the 2nd International Freedom Flotilla to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza.”

The 2nd Freedom Flotilla was reportedly planned for July 2011 but was canceled.

In 2016, Fithian reportedly provided “nonviolence training” to the participants of the pro-BDS Women’s Boat to Gaza, an FFC initiative to challenge the joint Israeli-Egyptian naval blockade of Gaza.

Lisa’s resume said that in 2003 she “spent several weeks in Palestine, working with the International Solidarity Movement acting as a human shield for Palestinians in Jenin and Nablus and to prevent the demolition of homes.”

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) was founded in 2001 with the goal of “resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles.” ISM has been accused of supporting terrorism and has encouraged volunteers to act “as human shields in cities, towns and refugee camps.”

As of June 2024, Fithian’s website said she offered “for anyone who wants to become more active in resistance…strategies and actions you can take right now to promote justice and incite change in your own community.”

As an organizer, Fithian was reportedly “part of the organizing committee for the US Boat to Gaza in 2011.” She also reportedly “shut down the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] and disrupted the World Trade Organization’s first major meeting…”

ISM

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) was founded in 2001 and, according to the group’s website, is “resisting the long-entrenched and systematic oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian population, using non-violent, direct-action methods and principles.”

Despite this claim, the ISM has been accused of supporting terrorism and has encouraged its foreign volunteers to act “as human shields in cities, towns and refugee camps.” At least once, ISM facilities have been used in attempts to facilitate the escape of known terrorists from Israeli security forces.

ISM has encouraged its volunteers to break curfew and disregard Israeli directives prohibiting access to closed military zones. This policy resulted in the death of ISM operative Rachel Corrie, who was killed by a bulldozer while interfering with an Israeli military operation in 2003.

A wrongful death suit brought by Corrie’s family was dismissed when the judge ruled that Corrie unreasonably chose to put her own life in danger and found there to be no intent or negligence on the part of any Israelis involved in the incident.

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.