Anthony Zenkus

Anthony Zenkus’s Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia) & Hatred of Israel

Anthony Zenkus [Anthony R. Zenkus] spread hatred of Israel online and also participated in the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia in April 2024.

Zenkus is a Columbia lecturer who wrote anti-Israel tweets after Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped hundreds more on October 7, 2023. For more information, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.

Zenkus is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. In May 2021, he claimed that BDS was a “peaceful way to get Israel to leave the illegally occupied territories and stop waging genocide on the Palestinian people.”

As of January 24, 2024, Zenkus was listed online as director of education at The Safe Center LI, Inc., in Bethpage, Long Island, New York.

As of January 23, 2024, Zenkus was listed on the Columbia directory and website as a senior lecturer at the School of Social Work. Columbia is located in New York, New York.

As of the same date, Zenkus was listed on the Adelphi University (Adelphi) online directory as senior adjunct faculty at the School of Social Work. Adelphi is located in Garden City, New York.

As of January 24, 2024, Zenkus was listed online as the process agent for Anthony Zenkus Inc., a “domestic business corporation,” company number 5669906, registered address in Greenlawn, New York.

As of the same date, Zenkus’ LinkedIn profile said Zenkus graduated from Stony Brook University (SBU), part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, with a master’s degree in social work in 2002. SBU is located in Stony Brook, New York.

Hatred of Israel

On October 10, 2023, three days after the unprecedented massacre of Israelis by Hamas terrorists, Zenkus tweeted: “...Israel has also committed war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza for decades. And Israel has done far more of them and is illegally occupying land and…they are an apartheid regime.”

On October 31, 2023, Zenkus tweeted: “Israel is holding several thousand Palestinian hostages that they took on Oct 7th after the Hamas attack. Their families have not heard from them and no one knows if they are safe or not…”

Also on October 31, 2023, Zenkus tweeted: “...Zionism is racism. Zionism is aprstheid [sic]…”

Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture. Zionism is a core part of the identity of most Jews.

On November 13, 2023, Zenkus tweeted: “Hamas is not an existential threat to the state of Israel. If anything, [Israeli prime minister] Netanyahu and his policies are…”


On November 29, 2023, Zenkus tweeted: “...Netanyahu built up Hamas to ensure there would never be a Palestinian state. And he didn’t give a sh*t about the hostages…”

On December 16, 2023, Zenkus tweeted: “...one day of atrocities doesn’t justify 70 days of constant indiscriminate bombardment...”

On December 27, 2023, Zenkus tweeted: “Israel is clearly engaged in ethnic cleansing.”

Participating in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia

On April 25, 2024, Zenkus was featured in a video posted on X participating [00:00:01] at the Columbia encampment. In the video, Zenkus said [00:00:11]: “Well, um, I wanted to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and the students who are putting everything on the line, um, for our brothers, sisters, and others in Gaza and the West Bank…I was here on day one, which was a week ago today…”

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…”

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

University Website:https://socialwork.columbia.edu/faculty-research/faculty/adjunct/anthony-zenkus/ [Deleted]

University Website 2:https://socialwork.columbia.edu/directory/anthony-r-zenkus

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

Twitter:https://twitter.com/anthonyzenkus

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/anthonyzenkus/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyzenkus/

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@anthonyzenkus8561

Academia.edu:https://adelphi.academia.edu/AnthonyZenkus