Soph Askanase
Soph Askanase’s Arrest at the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia)
Soph Askanase was arrested at the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia in April 2024. Askanase has also expressed support for Hamas terrorism.
Soph Askanase is a Barnard College (Barnard) student who organized the encampment and was suspended [00:17:50] by Barnard and arrested at the encampment.
On April 18, 2024, in an interview from the encampment with Democracy Now, Askanase said [00:03:21]: “...I am with Jewish Voice for Peace at Columbia. And I am here today because I will not stand by…as Columbia’s money is going towards a genocide.” Askanase continued [00:06:12]: “We refuse to believe that Israel is in any part related to our Judaism…as Jews, we are here to say that we will always support the liberation of Palestine…”
On April 23, 2024, Askanase spoke about her arrest in a press conference at Columbia and said [00:14:21]: “when I was marched out of the encampment in zip ties, I did not flinch…because I cannot and could not stand to be complicit in our university’s ongoing support for Israel’s genocidal campaign.” Askanase also said [00:16:43]: “On the first day of the encampment, I hung the banners I painted painstakingly for weeks…”
On April 26, 2024, the Washington Post quoted Askanase regarding the formation of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD): “We realized the administration still wasn’t listening to us…We realized an escalation was necessary.”
On May 15, 2024, Askanese was a panelist in an online event titled: “Student Intifada” along with Omar Barghouti and Maryam Alwan, sponsored by the Solidarity Research Center. Askanase described planning and organizing the encampment. Askanase said [00:40:56]: “...in early November, I remember sitting at my friend's apartment surrounded by cross-campus student organizers discussing our plan for the year…We knew that the student body needed to be radically educated and learn to be as angry as we were. So we set a time frame. We picked April…And we began to plan. Every week for months a group of 20 to 60 of us would rotate in and out of meetings to discuss the encampment.”
Askanase continued [00:43:11]: “...our main takeaway from those who came before us was that our strength comes from the community, from our community, broader New York City, in the world, the one that expands beyond Columbia's gates.”
Askanase stated [00:45:53]: “We ended up picking the 17th [of April, to set up the encampment] both because of [then-president of Columbia] Minouche Shafik’s congressional hearing…We wanted the press to talk about what was going on in Gaza, rather than alleged anti-Semitism…knowing that the president would be out of town and that Columbia would likely be paralyzed for a brief period of time, which would delay the response...”
Askanase also said [00:46:33]: “That day, the 17th, the morning of that day was when Columbia was set to pitch the tents for graduation on the lawns, and we knew that by taking the lawn on that day…we would force them to engage in their demands, because we would prevent them from essentially setting up for graduation…”
Askanase also said [00:52:17]: “the night after I was released from jail, I got in a Zoom call with about 300 students from schools across the country, to give them advice on launching their own encampment.”
On May 23, 2024, at a rally held outside Columbia, Askanase featured in a video from the rally, chanting [00:01:21]: “Viva viva, intifada, long live the intifada…there is only one solution, intifada revolution…”
The term “intifada” translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection” and carries the connotation of terrorist violence, including suicide bombings, hijackings, shootings and stabbings.
Askanase also repeated after a speaker, along with the crowd [00:06:08]: “we will spare nothing, we will give up nothing to free Palestine, from the river to the sea…”
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free,” is a chant used [00:02:52] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel.
The encampment was also in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Columbia is located in New York, New York.
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.
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.
The encampment was one of over 140 pro-Hamas and anti-Israel college encampments set up in North America, and over 20 more globally, in the spring of 2024. The first began on April 17, 2024, at Columbia University. The encampments were unofficially known as the “student intifada,” borrowing a term associated with terrorist violence.
Protesters harassed Jewish students, blocked Jews from campus facilities and shouted anti-Semitic slogans. They occupied campus grounds, in many cases illegally, caused property damage, violently took over buildings, celebrated terrorism and promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Activists set up encampments to oppose Israel’s right to wage war against the Hamas terror group following October 7, 2023, when Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 people, including 32 American and 8 Canadian citizens. Hamas also kidnapped 252 people, including 11 Americans and the bodies of 2 murdered Canadians. As of May 26, 2024, 125 hostages remained in Hamas captivity.
For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
On October 8, 2023, Askanase participated 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.
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.
At the rally, Askanase held a sign that read: “JEWS FOR PALESTINE” with a sticker on it that read: “BOYCOTT ISRAELI APARTHEID.” Askanase also was featured in photos from the same day of a group of activists at the Columbia campus making signs for the rally. In one photo, she held up a sign that read: “ISRAEL is an APARTHEID STATE / END ZIONISM.”
On May 15, 2024, during the “Student Intifada” online panel event, Askanase said [01:06:08]: “...every step we take is in the legacy of those who have come before us, and the legacy of the Great March of Return, and the legacy of those who have been protesting and resisting in Palestine. To separate resistance from Palestinian identity is to separate the blood from the body…”
Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” is a euphemism for nationalistic terror and is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence.
Throughout 2018, Hamas organized and funded the “March of Return” riots where tens of thousands of Palestinians approached the Israel-Gaza border, attempting to breach Israel’s security fence. They sent explosive devices into Israel, shot firearms and threw projectiles at Israeli soldiers, necessitating the use of live fire in response.
One Hamas leader declared [00:00:30]: “We will take down the border and we will tear out their hearts from their bodies.” The riots intended to highlight the “right of return,” a Palestinian demand long discredited as a way to destroy Israel.
During the 2018 March of Return, Hamas routinely directed its members to infiltrate the border between Gaza and Israel to train for an attack on Israeli communities in the area, leading to the October 7, 2023 massacre. For more information, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
Soph Askanase is a supporter [00:04:44] of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
According to the Washington Post, Askanase co-wrote the CUAD manifesto that was published in November 2023, when the dormant campus group was re-launched.
Askanase’s bio for a May 2024 “Student Intifada” panel event said Askanase also organized with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
The event bio also said Askanase was a religion major at Barnard. As of November 2024, Askanase’s LinkedIn profile said Askanase was a student at Barnard, slated to graduate in 2025.
As of the same date, Askanase’s LinkedIn said Askanase was located in New York, New York.