The post on X followed reports of Khamenei’s death in US-Israel strike.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

An anti-Israel student group operating under the name Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) posted “Death to America” on X on Saturday following reports that the U.S. and Israel had eliminated Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

The phrase was written in an English transliteration of the Persian phrase commonly chanted at demonstrations in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

When the social media site took down the post, the group defiantly wrote, “X forced us to delete our “marg bar amrika” tweet in order to gain back access to our account but the sentiment still stands.”

The account was subsequently taken down.

Columbia University distanced itself from the organization, stating that CUAD “is not a recognized student group, or affiliated in any way with the University,” and charged that it was using the school’s name illegally.

In a later statement, Columbia condemned the post’s “violent, abhorrent language,” calling it “reprehensible.”

Columbia said it had revoked the group’s recognition in July and is exploring legal options to prevent the continued use of its name.

The university added that no recognized student organizations are currently affiliated with CUAD, following warnings that groups maintaining ties would lose funding and campus privileges.

During the war in Gaza, more than 80 student organizations had reportedly been affiliated with the umbrella group.

CUAD was a leading organizer of anti-Israel encampments on Columbia’s campus during the war, protests that drew national attention for protesters’ illegal occupation of school buildings and numerous reports by Jewish students of concurrent verbal and physical abuse they suffered on campus.

The group was also involved in a demonstration calling for violence against Jews outside a New York synagogue last November.

Small anti-war rallies protesting the American airstrikes on Iran, known as “Operation Epic Fury,” have been held in cities including New York, Chicago, Denver and Washington, D.C.

There have also been demonstrations, both in the US and in Europe, some led by Iranian expatriates, where the participants chanted “thank you” to both US President Donald Trump and to Israel for targeting the Islamic regime in general, and assassinating Khamenei in particular.

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Jennifer L. Mnookin had condemned Hamas and enforced campus protest rules at UW-Madison.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A vehemently anti-Israel student group at Columbia University on Monday attacked the unanimous appointment of Jennifer L. Mnookin as the school’s first female Jewish president.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a primary organizer of pro-Hamas protests, illegal tent encampments and building occupations that marred campus life during Israel’s war with Hamas, accused Mnookin of suppressing activism during her tenure as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

“As chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, she called riot police to beat up and arrest students for their Gaza Solidarity Encampment. She’ll fit in perfectly with the rest of the school’s fascist admin,” the group wrote on X.

In May 2024, Mnookin authorized law enforcement to dismantle an unlawful encampment on UW–Madison’s Library Mall after protesters ignored repeated orders over two days to remove tents that violated campus rules banning overnight camping.

Students were warned multiple times and given the opportunity to leave peacefully.

While most complied, about 30 refused. Twelve were arrested, including four charged with assaulting officers or resisting arrest; four deputies were injured in the clashes.

In a letter to the campus community afterward, Mnookin reaffirmed her support for free expression and civil disobedience on “deeply felt” issues, but stressed that civil disobedience requires respect for shared laws and acceptance of legal consequences.

“That is what distinguishes civil disobedience from mere lawlessness,” she wrote.

The 58-year-old legal scholar was among the first university heads to publicly denounce Hamas for “the massive scale and brutality” of its Oct. 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel.

On Oct. 11, she told students, faculty and staff: “I stand with our community in condemning the vicious terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians last weekend.”

No matter what political views people espouse, she added, “The massacre of ordinary citizens, in their homes, at music concerts, in their cars and on the streets of their villages, is a horror that we must all, in our common humanity, condemn.”

Mnookin urged members of the campus community to focus on shared values and express political views “peacefully and respectfully.”

Announcing her appointment, Columbia University Board of Trustees co-chairs David J. Greenwald and Jeh C. Johnson praised Mnookin as “a distinguished scholar” who currently “leads a complex institution with clarity and vision.”

“She is also a keen listener who builds consensus and does not shy away from making difficult decisions when necessary,” they said, adding that she would lead Columbia with “a firm commitment to the university’s cherished values.”

Columbia has been widely criticized as one of the most hostile campuses for Jewish students since the start of the Gaza war, with anti-Israel protests frequently devolving into antisemitic harassment and physical intimidation.

Following a federal investigation into its handling of antisemitism, Columbia agreed to pay more than $200 million to settle discrimination claims and adopted new policies for addressing antisemitic incidents.

CUAD was formed in November 2023, a month into the war, after Columbia suspended Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) over their support for Hamas and antisemitic activities.

Although it comprises dozens of student groups, CUAD is not a registered student organization.

Mnookin is scheduled to officially assume office on July 1.

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“The American war machine should not be honored for the horrors unleashed on others,” says anti-Israel Columbia student group.

By World Israel News Staff

Anti-Israel group Columbia University Apartheid Divest is encouraging students at the Ivy League school to commemorate Palestinian terrorists, rather than American military personnel this Veterans Day.

“Veterans Day is an American holiday to honor the patriotism, love of country, and sacrifice of veterans. We reject this holiday and refuse to celebrate it,” read a flyer posted on Apartheid Divest’s social media accounts.

“The American war machine should not be honored for the horrors unleashed on others,” the post continued. “Instead, we will celebrate Martyrs Day in honor of those martyred by the Israel-U.S. war machine. A day to honor the patriotism, love of country, and sacrifice of those martyrs.”

The anti-Israel and anti-American message did not go unnoticed by Columbia students who served in the armed forces.

“That post really shook the hornet’s nest,” Sam Nahins, a 31-year-old Air Force veteran who completed an undergraduate degree at Columbia earlier this year, told the New York Post.

“They’ve never hid their disdain for veterans. But now it’s really out in the open,” he added. “Last year when students and faculty members were running around dressing up as jihadists and screaming ‘Death to America,’ ‘Death to Western civilization,’ death to everything but their cause, I had friends get called infidels, and murderers and baby-killers.”

In a statement to the Post, the university said it was aware of the Veterans Day protests and claimed that its “public safety team is monitoring for any disruptions to campus activity.”

“Columbia is proud of our students, faculty and staff who are veterans, and we are grateful for their service and sacrifice and the invaluable contributions they offer to our community,” a campus spokesperson told the Post on Sunday. “The University honors its veterans on Veterans Day and every day, and we are proud to be participating in the New York Veterans Day Parade tomorrow, as we have for more than a decade.”

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Support for armed resistance has long been commonplace among anti-Israel organizations, but it is rarely stated explicitly.

By Jack Elbaum, The Algemeiner

Columbia University’s major anti-Israel organizations came out in support of Palestinian terrorism and a student who said that Zionists do not deserve to live in an Instagram post on Wednesday.

“Violence is the only path forward,” a joint Instagram post between Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) and Columbia Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) read. “We are proud to be a part of the fight for the liberation of all oppressed peoples.”

Elsewhere in the post, the groups made clear that they “support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance.”

Support for armed resistance has long been commonplace among anti-Israel organizations, but it is rarely stated explicitly.

The statement from the Columbia student groups came in a longer post regarding Khymani James, a student at Columbia who was on video earlier this year saying “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and proclaiming that people should “be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”

He also said, “I don’t fight to injure or for there to be a winner or a loser, I fight to kill.”

James was reportedly a leader of Columbia’s anti-Israel movement and “Gaza solidarity encampment.”

The comments triggered backlash and what was widely seen as an apology for James on behalf of CUAD. However, the most recent post was a retraction of the previous apology.

“All CUAD organizers were complicit in not maintaining our political line, keeping the statement public on our Instagram, and in neglecting the mental and physical safety of Khymani,” the post read. CUAD apologized for causing “irrevocable harm” to him.

Despite James’ comments about the possibility of murdering Zionists, CUAD’s post claims that he was criticized and socially ostracized for “fight[ing] back against state violence.”

James also responded to this post, writing on Twitter/X, “Thank you to my comrades for posting this beautiful, powerful letter. I never wrote the neo-liberal apology posted in late April, and I’m glad we’ve set the record straight once and for all. I will not allow anyone to shame me for my politics.”

“Anything I said, I meant it,” he concluded.

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