Christopher Brown

Christopher L. Brown’s Support for the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia)

Christopher L. Brown showed support for the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia in April 2024. 

On April 22, 2024, Columbia professor Christopher Brown and other Columbia faculty members participated in the “FACULTY WALK OUT FOR PALESTINE AT COLUMBIA.” rally…to support Palestine and Liberated Zone Encampment.” The event was held in support of the students arrested by the New York Police Department (NYPD) and suspended by the university. Christopher Brown can be seen [slide 3] wearing his blue and red Oxford University academic gown and speaking into a microphone.

Brown’s speech condemned [00:14:00] Columbia for bringing the police to campus on April 18, 2024 to clear an illegal anti-Israel encampment, and criticized [00:16:42] Columbia President Minouche Shafik who testified before Congress about anti-Semitism on campus on April 17, 2024. 

Brown said [00:14:39]: “Thursday, April 18, 2024 will be remembered as a shameful day in Columbia’s history.”

Brown said [00:14:52]: “The president’s decision to send riot police to pick up peaceful protesters on our campus was… unjustified, disproportionate, divisive, and dangerous.” 

Brown said [00:15:44]: “The New York Police Department does not belong on this campus except…in extreme emergencies.” 

Faculty members carrying signs that said [00:00:35]: “END STUDENT SUSPENSIONS NOW” and HANDS OFF OUR STUDENTS,” walked out of their classrooms and made their way to the steps of the library facing the encampment. A crowd gathered and chanted: “Disclose! Divest! We will not stop, we will not rest!” Many walkout participants addressed [00:00:14] the crowd expressing faculty support for their students and the encampment.

The encampment was also in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

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

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.

Christopher L. Brown’s Work and Education

As of September 2024, Brown was listed as a professor in the history department at Columbia, since 2007. He received a doctor of philosophy degree from Balliol College, Oxford University (UK) in 1994.

Social Media and Weblinks

University Website:https://history.columbia.edu/person/brown-christopher/

University Website 2:https://sps.columbia.edu/person/dr-christopher-l-brown