Nadia Abu-El-Haj

Nadia Abu El-Haj’s Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia)

Nadia Abu El-Haj participated in the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia in April and May 2024.

Columbia professor Nadia Abu El-Haj was featured [slide 6] in an April 19, 2024 Instagram photo participating in the pro-Hamas encampment. In the photo, Abu El-Haj held her phone and coffee next to the encampment tents. The post said: “Gaza Solidarity Encampment/Liberated Zone. Photos from day 1.”

On April 22, 2024, Abu El-Haj was featured [00:02:10] in a Freedom News TV YouTube video participating in the Columbia encampment. Abu El-Haj can be seen in the video standing with other faculty at the entrance of the encampment wearing a yellow vest with gray stripes.

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.

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

On April 22, 2024, Nadia Abu El-Haj, along with other Columbia faculty members, participated [00:21:57] in the “‘Faculty Walkout’ 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. Abu El-Haj can be seen standing to the left of the speaker, in front of the railing in the back row.

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.

On May 1, 2024, Abu El-Haj appeared speaking in a video posted on Instagram. The post said: “Professor Nadia Abu El-Haj addresses a crowd of faculty, students, and staff at Columbia University the day after NYPD Violently stormed a building occupied by student protestors…Columbia University faculty…took to the sidewalk outside the University gates to protest …”

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!...”

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 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.

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.

For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.

Nadia Abu El-Haj’s Anti-Israel Activism, Work and Education

Nadia Abu El-Haj is a leader in the BDS movement. In 2015, she led a failed BDS campaign at the American Anthropological Association (AAA) to pass a resolution that would boycott Israeli academic institutions.

In 2002, El-Haj published a book, titled "Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society.” The book implied that Israeli archaeologists falsified evidence to prove the existence of Israelites in the area.

As of November 2024, Abu El-Haj was listed as a professor in the “Departments of Anthropology at Barnard College (Barnard) and Columbia.” She also served as co-director of the Center for Palestine Studies and chair of the governing board of the Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia.

As of the same date, Abu El-Haj’s faculty page said she received a PhD from Duke University (Duke) in 1995.

As of November 2024, Abu El-Haj’s X account said she was located in Manhattan, New York.