Munir Atalla

Munir Atalla’s Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia) and Celebration of Hamas Terrorist War Crimes at an Anti-Israel Rally

Munir Atalla is a Columbia professor who participated in the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia in April 2024. Atalla also celebrated Hamas terrorist war crimes at an anti-Israel rally in October 2023 and co-organized the rally as a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) chapter in New York, New York (PYM NYC).

As of March 2024, Atalla was listed on the Columbia University (Columbia) website as an adjunct assistant professor of film and media studies for the Spring 2024 semester. He’s been an independent film producer since January 2022.

Atalla organized the rally, which was held one day after Hamas terror atrocities and war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023.

The attacks left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”

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.

In July 2012, Atalla wrote a letter titled: “Letter from Jerash, Jordan: A visit to the Gaza Refugee Camp.” He said in the letter: “I introduced myself as a Palestinian student studying in America…” Atalla also indicated in the letter that he was from Jerusalem and was born to Jordanian parents.

10/8/2023 - Celebrating Hamas Terrorist War Crimes

On October 8, 2023, one day after Hamas massacred 1,200 Israeli Jews, Atalla reportedly [00:00:30] co-organized and participated [01:12:15] in a pro-Hamas rally in New York City’s Times Square, titled: “All Out For Palestine.” He co-organized the event as a member of PYM NYC.

Atalla was featured in a video from the rally, where he said [00:00:58]: “We’re here to say that occupied people have a right to resist their occupation…”

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.

In an article about the rally, Atalla was quoted at the protest as saying: “What we saw yesterday was the people of Gaza breaking out of their open-air prison.”

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.

In another article that discussed the rally, Atalla was quoted as saying: “We want to show the world that when Palestine rises up in resistance, the diaspora rises with it.”

On October 8, 2023, the anti-Israel groups Al-Awda and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) joined with other groups in New York City for a rally in support of the previous day’s Hamas terror attacks on Israeli civilians.

Activists repeatedly celebrated the mass murder of Israeli civilians. They stomped on [00:00:01] and burned [00:00:21] Israeli flags. Speakers led [00:17:43] calls for Israel’s violent destruction and celebrated [00:20:45] Hamas firing rockets at Israeli cities and the taking [00:27:27] of hostages.

Hamas Terrorist War Crimes of October 7, 2023

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.

Munir Atalla’s Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia)

On April 19, 2024, Atalla was featured [slide 1] in a video posted on Instagram participating [00:00:01] in the Columbia encampment. Atalla can be seen wearing a brown jacket and a keffiyeh around his neck.

The Instagram post said: “We just arrived back at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia and it’s going strong…”

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.

The encampment was also in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Biographical Information

Atalla was a member [00:01:17] of PYM NYC in 2023, when he said he had been an organizer [00:01:40] with the group for “almost two years.”

Atalla was an activist with the Tufts University (Tufts) chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in 2015.

Atalla is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As of March 27, 2024, Atalla was listed on the Columbia website as an “Adjunct Assistant Professor, Film and Media Studies / Spring 2024” in the Columbia School of the Arts.

As of the same date, Atalla’s LinkedIn said he received a master’s degree in fine arts from the Columbia School of the Arts in March 2023 in film and creative production. Columbia is located in New York, New York.

Also as of March 27, 2024, Atalla’s LinkedIn profile said he had been a self-employed freelance “Creative Writing Strategist” since March 2023. He had also been an independent film producer since January 2022.

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.

PYM

In 2012, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM USA) released a statement saying: “Our liberation...will be gained with the path that was written with the blood of our martyrs. We reaffirm that the only path that we are concerned with is the path that explicitly heads towards the liberation of our land and the return of our people to Palestine.”

PYM organized rallies demonizing Israel where it displays propaganda posters supporting the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and compared Israel to Nazi Germany.

On October 25, 2015, PYM called to support “intifada” during a period when Palestinian radicals across Israel stabbed and hacked to death scores of Israeli civilians. PYM alleged that “Al-Aqsa Mosque has been the target of particularly brutal assaults” and that “... arbitrary killings are committed daily by the Zionist military and settlers.”

On November 10, 2015, the PYM Facebook page displayed a photo of masked Palestinian radicals throwing rocks and firing rocks from slingshots. That photo was used to promote at least 25 anti-Israel rallies across the globe on or around November 29, 2015 under the banner of “Transnational mobilization for Palestinian resistance.”

On November 30, 2015, PYM displayed a photo on Facebook from one of the rallies showing a sign in support of PFLP member Khalida Jarrar, who confessed to inciting violence and calling for terrorists to abduct Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers.

Another sign showed support for PFLP Secretary-General Ahmad Sadat, who was convicted for the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi.

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.