Despite being barred from campus by Columbia University officials since Friday, student protester Khymani James, 20, was still at the West Lawn Gaza Solidarity Encampment on Saturday evening.
The Columbia College junior – who uses they/them pronouns – said that they don’t know if public safety officers would come to remove them from the site. James is a member of Columbia University Apartheid Divest – one of the student-led organizations that established the camp – and has acted as a spokesperson from the encampment in recent days.
In a video unearthed on Thursday, James states that “Zionists don’t deserve to live.” They made this and other controversial comments during and after a disciplinary hearing with Columbia administrators in January. James recorded the hearing and posted it online afterwards. The hearing had been called after James, on social media, said about fighting a Zionist, “I don’t fight to injure or for there to be a winner or a loser, I fight to kill.”
On Friday, they apologized. “What I said was wrong,” James wrote in a statement posted on X (formerly known as Twitter.) “Every member of our community deserves to feel safe without qualification.”
While negotiations continue between the university and student protesters, Columbia officials stated on Friday evening that bringing back the NYPD to dismantle the encampment would be “counterproductive, further inflaming what is happening on campus, and drawing thousands to our doorstep who would threaten our community.”
Columbia University President Minouche Shafik has been widely criticized for calling in the NYPD to clear the original encampment on April 18, a decision that resulted in more than 100 arrests.
Shafik has been under attack since then. On Friday, the Columbia University Senate voted for a resolution to initiate an investigation into the university’s leadership, accusing the administration of violating established protocols, undermining academic freedom and breaching the due-process rights of students and faculty.
Edward is from Fresno, California. He covers transportation for City Newsroom.
Francesca is an Italian reporter covering politics for City Newsroom. She has reported in print, web, audio and video. Francesca speaks three languages.
