Lawmakers call on FBI to probe anti-Israel group at Columbia
Two Republican lawmakers are begging the FBI to “start protecting Jewish students” — by launching an investigation into an anti-Israel coalition at Columbia University that’s called for armed resistance and violence as recently as last week.
In a letter obtained by The Post, Sen. Joni Ernst and House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik cite disturbing statements by a member of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) — including “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists” — as reason for the crackdown.
“Rarely has the FBI had such public and obvious evidence of potentially imminent violence,” the pair said in its Monday letter to James Dennehy, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office.
“This cannot become another instance in which a terrible case of violence takes place at a school and the FBI issues a statement after the fact that the perpetrators were ‘on its radar,’ but did nothing. Put simply, the writing is on the wall and you have no excuse. Do your job.”
CUAD is comprised of about 116 student groups, many of which had been involved in the anti-Israel encampments at Columbia last spring.
Last Tuesday, a day after the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ massacre in Israel, CUAD said it supported “liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance” in a chilling Instagram post.
“In the face of violence from the oppressor equipped with the most lethal military force on the planet, where you’ve exhausted all peaceful means of resolution, violence is the only path forward,” the group wrote.
“Long live Palestine, long live the Intifada, and long live the Resistance.”
CUAD had also hailed a recent attack in Tel Aviv earlier this month as “a significant act of resistance.”
Katrina Armstrong, the interim president of Columbia University, is copied on the lawmakers’ letter.
“The FBI needs to stop sitting on its hands and start protecting Jewish students,” Ernst told The Post. “When someone tells you who they are, believe them.”
“The CUAD leaders are openly calling for the murder of Jews and celebrating Hamas terrorist attacks. These are credible threats, and the FBI needs to respond instead of waiting for a tragedy to happen.”
Last spring, CUAD apologized for member Khymani James’ comment that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” — but the group later walked that back.
“Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists I’ve never hurt anyone in my life, and I hope to keep it that way,” James said at the time.
“I fight to kill,” he also wrote in another post.
He thanked CUAD for walking back its apology and doubled down: “Anything I said, I meant it.”
Both Ernst (R-Iowa) and Stefanik (R-NY) blamed CUAD for the anti-Israel protests at the Morningside Heights campus last spring — and the violent takeover of Hamilton Hall.
During that upheaval, campus Rabbi Elie Buechler urged students to flee because Columbia University “cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy.”
Columbia was forced to switch to hybrid learning for the remainder of its spring semester due to the heightened tensions on campus.
The NYPD eventually intervened and cuffed a litany of anti-Israel demonstrators on campus. Columbia University President Minouche Shafik resigned on Aug. 14 amid the blowback.
“In light of the considerable violence occurring for which this group is already responsible, and Columbia University’s inability and unwillingness to police its own campus necessitating it to request the NYPD intervene, federal intervention is now necessary,” the lawmakers wrote.
They added, “It’s rare for potential perpetrators of violence, particularly school-based violence, to widely and publicly broadcast their intent in such a way as it becomes national news. But that’s exactly what the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a coalition of student groups, did.”
Stefanik had long called for Shafik’s resignation, having grilled her and several Ivy League School presidents during a congressional hearing late last year.
Columbia has previously insisted it condemns violence.
“Statements advocating for violence or harm are antithetical to the core principles upon which this institution was founded,” a spokesperson previously told The Post. “Calls for violence have no place at Columbia or any university.”