Columbia protest leader says ‘Zionists don’t deserve to live’

Khymani James: ‘There should not be Zionists anywhere. Zionists are Nazis.’

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

A video has surfaced of a Columbia University anti-Israel protest leader repeatedly calling for the murder of Zionists.

In the video, Khymani James, who uses he/she/they pronouns, tapes an interview with Columbia’s administration investigating a social media post in which James threatened ‘Zionist’ students with the phrase, “I fight to kill.”

James explained what they meant by saying “If an individual identifies as a Zionist … puts their hands on me. I will defend myself and in that scenario, I won’t know when to stop.”

The protester then laughed after the interview section of the video and said “They were hoping I was going to walk back ‘I fight to kill.'”

Khymani James then launched into a tirade in which they compare Jews to Nazis, alleging that Zionists also have a genocidal ideology and for world peace, just as Nazis “had to die” so should Zionists.

James elaborated “Taking someone’s life in certain scenarios is necessary…When Hitler died the world rejoiced. Hitler needed to die.”

They also compared killing Zionists to Haitians killing their slave masters to gain independence.

James added, “There should not be Zionists anywhere. Zionists are Nazis.”

They went on, “Some people need to die if they have an ideology that results in the death of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions. If people like that exist, shouldn’t they die? Why should we want supporters of genocide to live?”

“Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists. I feel very comfortable for those people to die,” James concluded.

A Columbia University spokesman told CNN Friday that Khyamani James was banned from campus, but didn’t indicate whether they are still enrolled in the university or how long the ban would last.

Early on Friday, James released an apology video saying they “misspoke” and  “every member of our community deserves to feel safe without qualification.”

They added that they were feeling “unusually upset” because people online had attacked them “for being visibly queer and black.”

However, ABC said in an interview hours earlier, that James refused to walk back their statements about murdering Zionists.

In response to Khyamani James’ video, The White House Deputy Press Secretary said, “These dangerous, appalling statements turn the stomach and should serve as a wakeup call.”

“It is hideous to advocate for the murder of Jews. President Biden has been clear that violent rhetoric, hate speech and antisemitic remarks have no place in America whatsoever, and he will always stand against them.”