Joseph Howley
Joseph Howley’s Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia), Hatred of Israel during a Hamas War & Speaking at an Anti-Israel Rally
Joseph Howley [Joseph A. Howley] is a professor who justified the Hamas terrorist war crimes of October 7, 2023, and spread hatred of Israel at Columbia during Israel’s war against Hamas.In February 2024, FSJP-CBT described Howley as an “eloquent representative” after he spoke at an anti-Israel rally at Columbia, where he is a classics professor. The rally was in support of a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement group on campus.
The incidents occurred after Hamas terror atrocities and war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023. The attacks left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”
Justifying the Hamas War Crimes of October 7, 2023
Howley joined with other Columbia faculty to sign an October 30, 2023 statement during Israel’s war against Hamas. The statement called [p. 2] the Hamas terror attacks about three weeks earlier a “military response” against Israel by “an occupied people exercising a right to resist violent and illegal occupation.”Anti-Israel activists use the term “resistance” to refer to violence and terror perpetrated against Israeli civilians and their allies. It is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence. Anti-Israel activists chant slogans such as: “Resistance by any means necessary!” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” in response to terror attacks.
The letter that Howley signed defended [p. 1] Columbia students who had signed on to a statement that described the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023, as a “military action” within the “larger context of the occupation of Palestine by Israel.”
The letter claimed [p. 2] that the student statement aimed to “recontextualize the events of October 7, 2023, pointing out that military operations and state violence did not begin that day, but rather it represented a military response by a people who had endured crushing and unrelenting state violence from an occupying power over many years.”
The letter also stated [p. 2]: “...one could regard the events of October 7th as just one salvo in an ongoing war between an occupying state and the people it occupies, or as an occupied people exercising a right to resist violent and illegal occupation.”
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 2,900 heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation.
Hatred of Israel during a Hamas War
On November 15, 2023, Howley spoke at a protest to condemn the suspension of Columbia’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) after they violated school policies. On October 9, 2023, Columbia SJP expressed support for the Hamas terror attacks two days earlier.During his speech, Howley said [00:00:25]: “My Jewish ancestors were killed and made refugees by ethnic cleansing projects like the one underway right now in Gaza.”
Howley continued [00:00:33]: “My Jewish ancestors and many others suffered and endured hardships at the hands of genocidal and ethnonationalist projects like the one perpetrated against the people in Palestine for the last hundred years.”
On November 20, 2023, Howley tweeted: “Last week I was part of an action by faculty, staff, and graduate workers to protest the university’s suspension of two student groups drawing attention Palestinian suffering and Israeli state apartheid…”
2/8/2024 - Speaking at an Anti-Israel Rally
On February 8, 2024, Howley was reportedly a featured speaker at a pro-BDS event titled: “Walkout, Art Build, and Student-Led March for Gaza.”At the event, another featured speaker said: “Until there’s an end to the genocide and total liberation of Palestinian land, we will refuse to be silent.”
During the event, protesters painted phrases, such as “Columbia $upports racist violence” and “Columbia University is complicit,” on their Columbia sweaters, shirts and tote bags, in reference to Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists.
The rally was co-organized by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a pro-BDS coalition of “over 80 student groups working toward the goal of collective liberation.” CUAD began in 2016 but was revived in late 2023 when Columbia suspended its SJP and JVP chapters for violating school policies.
Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia
On May 1, 2024, the day after protesters forced their way into Columbia’s Hamilton Hall, Howley posted a video on Instagram in which he spoke in support of the pro-Hamas encampment. The post said: "Professor Joseph Howley addresses a crowd of faculty, students, and staff at Columbia University…"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 April 26, 2024, Howley posted a photo on Instagram that featured him speaking to
former U.S. Congressional Representative Jamaal Bowman, who visited the encampment on the same day.
On April 22, 2024, Howley was featured [00:01:02] in a YouTube video uploaded by Freedom News TV participating in the Columbia encampment. Howley can be seen in the video standing [00:02:11] in a row with other faculty at the entrance of the encampment wearing a yellow vest with gray stripes.
The video was titled: “Massive Encampment on 'Liberated Zone' at Columbia University, Faculty Prepare to BLOCK Prof Shai.” Columbia professor Shai Davidai is a leading voice against anti-Semitism at Columbia.
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."
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…”
Biographical Information
As of March 26, 2024, Howley, who also goes by Joseph A. Howley, was listed on the Columbia website as an associate professor of classics.As of the same date, Howley’s LinkedIn profile said he had been an assistant professor at Columbia since August 2011.
As of the same date, Howley was listed online as having received a PhD in classics in 2011 from the University of St. Andrews, which is located in St. Andrews, Scotland.
SJP
SJP is a student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses.
The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian. Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group. In 2004, Bazian called for “intifada” in America.
SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks, often in collaboration with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Muslim Student Association (MSA) campus chapters.
SJP has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses. Chapters have initiated dozens of BDS resolutions in student governments, which have been proposed on or around Jewish holidays, a time when many Jewish students are off-campus.
SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, disrupted pro-Israel campus events and demonized pro-Israel campus organizations.
Chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and whitewashed terrorism.
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
Twitter:https://twitter.com/hashtagorasInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/westermannsleksikon/ [Private]
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-howley-9b34b860/
University Website:https://classics.columbia.edu/joseph-howley
University Website 2:https://classicalstudies.columbia.edu/faculty/joseph-howley
University Website 3:https://sofheyman.org/persons/joseph-a-howley
Videos
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