Saham Ali

Overview

Saham Ali expressed hatred of Israel and called for amnesty for students suspended for vandalism, breaking into an academic building, and other disruptions at Columbia University (Columbia).

Ali made her remarks during her commencement speech at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health (Mailman) graduation ceremony. The student violations to which she referred to in her speech had occurred in the wake of Hamas terror atrocities and war crimes against Israeli civilians. These included mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, and 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.”

Ali also expressed [00:10:10] support during her speech for Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a pro-terror coalition of “over 80 student groups working toward the goal of collective liberation.” CUAD is part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Ali, who also goes by Saham David Ali and Saham David Ahmed Ali, was listed [p. 17] online as having graduated from Mailman with a master’s degree in public health in May 2024. She was also listed as having graduated from Georgetown University (GU) with a bachelor’s degree in “biology of global health” in 2021.

May 14, 2024 - Hatred of Israel during a Hamas War

On May 14, 2024, Ali delivered [p. 3] the student address at Mailman’s commencement ceremony. The event took place less than two weeks after Columbia’s pro-terror “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” was dismantled for the second time.

Referring to Israel’s war against Hamas, Ali said [00:01:49]: “It feels dystopian to walk through Mailman’s halls every day scrolling through social media, standing in our classrooms while I witness the genocide of the Palestinian people.”

Ali continued [00:02:10]: “The silence on this campus and the pressure to say nothing while administration and professors assert that ‘We’re here for you’ while we’re actively witnessing the most televised genocide of our lives made me lose hope.”

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, over 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.
During Ali’s commencement speech, she called [00:10:10] for amnesty for Columbia students who were suspended from the university for their involvement in illegal activities during anti-Israel protests and violent incidents on the Columbia campus.

Ali said [00:10:10]: “Columbia University Apartheid Divest had been asking Columbia University…to divest from institutions profiting off the Palestinian genocide…to get NYPD [New York Police Department] off our campuses. To ask for amnesty for all students.”

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, protestors 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.

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.

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/Sahammmie