Shana Redmond

Shana Redmond’s Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia)

Shana Redmond [Shana L. Redmond] participated in the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia in April 2024. Redmond has also expressed hatred of America.

Shana L. Redmond is a Columbia professor who spoke at the encampment on April 29, 2024. During her speech, she said [00:09:12]: “My people are out here!”

Redmond continued and said [00:09:50]: “I see all of you out here every single day teaching and living history and courage in real time! These are the realest classrooms going at Columbia right now! And I'm proud to be here standing with you in solidarity in allyship and in shared belief!”

Redmond then said [00:12:42]: “What I am here to do especially is to congratulate you. On behalf of my colleagues, we want to extend our deep thanks and congratulate you for this tremendous victory. You have ignited a global movement…”

In a May 3, 2024 interview with Mohamed Hashem, host of “Real Talk” on the Middle East Eye YouTube channel, Redmond was asked [00:23:24] if she thought it was a “step too far” taken by the anti-Israel activists who took over and occupied Columbia’s Hamilton Hall during the protest encampment. 

Redmond responded [00:23:41]: “I don’t want to police students’ strategy…There were arguments for why that needed to happen in their minds and I’m uninterested in critiquing them. I would only say that– that the students have demonstrated a clarity of purpose, a clarity of political investment…I applaud them for that!” 

On April 30, 2024, participants in Columbia’s second pro-Hamas encampment forced their way into the university’s Hamilton Hall, barricading themselves in the building and taking three Columbia custodians hostage. Protesters also vandalized [00:00:55] and destroyed university property inside the hall. A police raid on Hamilton found knives, gas masks, ropes and literature that read: “...DESTROY zionist business interests everywhere!...DEATH TO AMERICA!...”

In an April 30, 2024 interview for with Democracy Now, Redmond, standing outside the Columbia encampment, said [00:04:26] “I am here today because this is leadership in action.”

Redmond continued [00:04:29]: “These students have taken the worst of circumstances on a global scale and the worst of circumstances at a very localized university scale and turned it into something beautiful.” 

The encampment was also in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
 
On May 16, 2024, Redmond participated in an anti-Israel ceremony organized by “The People’s Grad for Palestine.” Redmond appeared [slide 9] standing at the back on the left side of the photo, taken outside the ceremony’s building.

The event, titled: “The People’s Graduation,” was planned by “an independent group of faculty [who] wanted to create a graduation ceremony for their students who have been excluded from campus for peacefully protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza [at the Columbia encampment].” 

The ceremony was organized “following the cancellation of [Columbia’s] Universitywide Commencement ceremonies and in the aftermath of the April 18 and April 30 [2024] police sweeps of the ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ and occupied Hamilton [Hall].”

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.