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Jeanine D'Armiento
Jeanine D’Armiento's Support for the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia)
Jeanine D’Armiento showed support for the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia in April and May 2024. The encampment was also in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
According to an October 2024 Republican Staff Report submitted [p. 104] to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce, titled: "Antisemitism on College Campuses Exposed," Jeanine D'Armiento exhibited a pattern of favoritism towards "antisemitic activists" in her capacity as chair of the Executive Committee of Columbia's senate.
D'Armiento reportedly[p. 104] "played a key role as a go-between for the Executive Committee leaders to communicate with the Columbia administration. D’Armiento gave the unlawful encampment unwarranted legitimacy and helped it advance its objectives by serving as an interlocutor for it with the Columbia administration on multiple occasions. Instead of calling on the encampment to disband, D’Armiento pressed the administration to accommodate it."
On April 30, 2024, during a violent occupation of Columbia's Hamilton Hall by anti-Israel agitators, according to records of a text message exchange, D'Armiento was described as [p. 105] "clearly and closely connected to the students who are leading the protest..." and had called to "speak to their idealism" rather than issue "threats of discipline."
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!...”
On May 4, 2024, Bwog Columbia Student News reported that during a special plenary meeting of the Columbia faculty senate held the day before, D'Armiento read [p. 2 of May 3 meeting minutes] a statement on behalf of the Executive Committee that called on the university administration to negotiate with the students.
Later in the meeting, D'Armiento muted [00:00:40] a Columbia faculty senator, Carol Garber, who had expressed concerns about campus security around the encampment, highlighting that Columbia failed to prevent people who support or have ties with terror organizations from getting onto campus.
D'Armiento muted Garber mid-sentence and, after another senator protested, D'Armiento shouted: "This is my meeting, my meeting, my meeting."
On May 14, 2024, according to records of another text message exchange published in the Congressional report, D'Armiento called [p. 93-94] for students who were facing expulsion for occupying Hamilton Hall to be included in "the planning and discussions around the Rules that will ultimately govern them..."
On August 23, 2024, at a faculty senate meeting, D'Armiento said, regarding a coordinated Columbia faculty action to prevent Jewish and Israeli students from accessing the encampment, that the action [00:00:28] "was fully coordinated with [Chief Operating Officer] Cas Holloway and [Vice President of Public Safety] Gerald Lewis, and I also was aware of these activities of the faculty."
Numerous Columbia faculty and staff members participated in the encampment wearing bright orange vests with yellow and gray stripes. Taped to each vest was a label that said either “FACULTY” or “STAFF.” They had organized to support the student protestors in various ways. Some made up a “human barricade” to prevent Jewish students from entering [00:03:16] the campus, and some held signs saying: “HANDS OFF OUR STUDENTS" and [00:00:31] “No cops on campus.” Other faculty and staff “lined up in front of the encampment in a show of solidarity with the student body."
There was also a group of Columbia faculty and staff members who wore [00:01:00, 00:02:12] yellow vests with gray stripes during the encampment. On one occasion, they prevented [00:03:06] those they deemed “provocateurs” [00:01:09, 00:01:26] from entering Columbia as well.
On December 2, 2024, the Columbia Spectator reported that at the August 23, 2024 faculty senate meeting, D'Armiento "clarified that she, Holloway, and Lewis were informed that students had coordinated with faculty members to 'prevent nonaffiliates from entering.'" At a November 22, 2024 senate meeting, D'Armiento said [p. 9] that she, Holloway and Lewis "had gone to the encampment to observe the system."
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.
As of December 2024, Jeanine D'Armiento was listed as an associate professor in anesthesiology, director of the Center for Molecular Pulmonary Disease in Anesthesiology and Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, and director of the Center for Lymphangiomyomatosis (LAM) and Rare Lung Disease, at Columbia.
As of the same date, Jeanine D'Armiento was listed as chair of the Executive Committee of the Columbia University senate and listed as chair of the Commission on the Status of Women at Columbia.
As of January 2025, D’Armiento was also listed as a member of Columbia’s “Self-Study Steering Committee,” which will provide information and recommendations to officials conducting an on-site evaluation visit in April 2025, as part of the university’s accreditation process.
