Sarah Haberlack

Sarah Haberlack [Sarah Kim Haberlack] promoted an anti-Israel student group at the pro-Hamas encampment in April 2024. Haberlack has also expressed support for terrorists, including Hamas.

Sarah Haberlack is a Columbia student who represented Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) at the “People’s University for Palestine Club Fair” as part of Columbia’s annual Admitted Students Day.

On April 21, 2024, The People’s Forum NYC posted on Instagram: “WELCOME TO THE PEOPLES UNIVERSITY FOR PALESTINE! Today, students in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia have taken their education into their own hands for themselves and for the young people visiting…The People’s University for Palestine has been built by a coalition of organizations…who are all part of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest.”

The post included a video featuring Sarah Haberlack who said [00:00:01] “Welcome to the ‘People’s University for Palestine Club Fair’ where students from organizations within CUAD are coming up and sharing with admitted students what kinds of organizations they’re from. We’ve got students who are parts of literary magazines; they’re part of dance troupes; they’re parts of all different sorts of clubs that have come together into this coalitional Columbia University Apartheid Divest where they’re all coming together to pool their resources and continue the fight and strengthen the fight on Columbia University for Palestinian liberation and complete divestment of university funds from Israel.” 

In an April 19, 2024 video posted on YouTube by FreedomNews TV, Haberlack said [00:04:46]: “...the first night of the encampment I actually was not part of the organizing team…I was just here temporarily…bringing supplies…and providing some moral support.”

Haberlack continued [00:05:08]: “...I came back early yesterday morning and stayed and watched my friends’ arrests…and watching…the spontaneous occupation of the adjacent lawn was…I think…I’m not the only one…many people were inspired by that, enough to stay the second night, to keep the encampment continuous.”

Haberlack also said [00:05:56]: “...ever since October 8th, I think there’s been a really clear fight against imperialism and a fundamental shift in people’s understanding of what’s really been a 75 year genocide in Palestine that’s done by the Israeli military might, and backing by the U.S. imperialists…”

The modern State of Israel was founded 76 years earlier, in 1948.

Haberlack said [00:06:37]: “...we’ve just been trying to keep the momentum going because, you know, the genocide in Palestine is still going…”

Haberlack said [00:07:16]: “I think…it’s a historic moment right now…we’re making historic decisions…and a lot is on the line, you know, like millions, potentially billions of dollars that feed the Israeli Occupation Forces…”

“IOF” stands for “Israeli Occupation Forces,” a derogatory name used by anti-Israel activists to demonize Israel’s army in place of its official name, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Haberlack also said [00:08:46]: “...we’re all really resolute in the fact that we have to keep encampment going…we all clearly understand the power that we have in this, you know, like, ‘occupation’ of land, taking it into our control…”

Haberlack said [00:09:57]: “...there’s, like, a fundamental shift on university campuses. I think we’ve unlocked the effectiveness, um, and the strategy of, like, encampments.

Haberlack concluded [00:10:10]: “We see how disturbing it is to university administration. We see how, like, embarrassed and devastated and afraid they are because of two– two nights of encampment, and …I hope that other universities– I hope ALL universities across the country follow suit because– I think we have unlocked something really powerful.”

On April 21, 2024, Haberlack was featured [slide 1] in an Instagram photo from the April 20, 2024 protests in New York. The post said: “Yesterday on 4/20, all protests in NYC converged into one as the Gaza Solidarity Encampment…entered its 4th day…As the marchers all converged in front of the locked and closed gates, students and organizers from inside the locked campus brought microphones and speakers to lead chants and speeches…” Haberlack is seen standing at the locked Columbia campus gate, holding a microphone with her henna-decorated hands, chanting or speaking.

Columbia is located in New York, New York.

Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University

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.

Background on Pro-Hamas Encampments

Close to 200 anti-Israel college encampments were set up in North America in the spring of 2024. The first took place at Columbia University. Protesters harassed Jewish students, blocked Jews from campus facilities, used anti-Semitic language in their activism, promoted BDS and protested Israel’s war against Hamas.

Sarah Haberlack’s Support for Terrorists

On October 8, 2023, Haberlack participated [00:12:55] in a rally celebrating Hamas’ mass murder of 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023. 

On October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis, kidnapped hundreds and wounded thousands. War crimes included mass rape and torture. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.” For more information, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.


At the rally, Haberlack held a large banner that said [00:51:26]: “STAND WITH PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE / END ALL U.S. AID TO APARTHEID ISRAEL.”

Among anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” is a euphemism for terrorism and is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence.  

On April 19, 2024, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) posted on Instagram a video interview with Haberlack at the Columbia encampment. She is seen wearing a black “Assata Shakur” shirt and wrapped in a keffiyeh. 

Assata Shakur was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper and wounding another in 1973 while a member of the separatist Black Liberation Army (BLA). She escaped from prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba in 1984, where she resides today. She is listed on the FBI Most Wanted Terror List under her legal name, Joanne Deborah Chesimard.

The keffiyeh is a Palestinian headdress traditionally worn by men, which has become a symbol of Palestinian nationalism.   

After introducing herself on “Day Three of the encampment,” Haberlack said [00:00:13]: “The original organizers of the encampment showed up at 4:00 a.m.; the second day, they were mass arrested…Thousands of students watched them get arrested and, in the aftermath, they spontaneously hopped the fence of this side of Butler Lawn and started occupying it, because they were so inspired by the power of the organization and the response of Columbia to start to cave to our demands…”

Haberlack continued [00:00:54]: “The energy is incredible…it’s really inspiring…there’s a whole new wave of organizers that have come in the wake of the original plan, and we’re really excited to see what comes next…”

Haberlack concluded [00:01:17]: “We can see that encampment and occupation of campus land has become a really effective strategy for campus organizing…we’re hoping to stay as long as possible and use ourselves as an example of what student power can really look like.”

Sarah Haberlack’s Anti-Israel Activism, Work and Education

Sarah Haberlack is a supporter [00:00:35] of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Haberlack graduated from Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, with a master’s degree in public health and a certificate in applied biostatistics and public health data science, in May 2024. 

As of September 2024, Haberlack’s LinkedIn said she was located in Brooklyn, New York.