Columbia bars Gaza encampment activist who said 'Zionists don't deserve to ... trends now
A Columbia student who posted a livestream in which they stated 'Zionists don't deserve to live' has finally been barred from the university campus, four months after making the incendiary comments.
Protester Khymani James, who served as a spokesperson for the pro-Palestinian encampment as a member of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, was banned from stepping foot on the university grounds on Friday and now faces disciplinary action.
James said in the video that 'Zionists don't deserve to live' and people should be grateful James wasn't killing them.
James already faced a disciplinary hearing with Columbia bosses earlier in the year in which they were asked to clarify what they meant - yet no action was taken.
No disciplinary action was taken as a result of comments despite James stating they wished to be kicked out so they could go and travel to South America.
Khymani James, who uses he/she/they pronouns, said repeatedly during a January livestream that 'Zionists do not deserve to live' and that the world would be better if they were not in it
James, a senior at the university, has walked back the comments that made in the online video from January after they suddenly received renewed attention.
'What I said was wrong,' James, who uses 'he/she/they' pronouns, said in a statement. 'Every member of our community deserves to feel safe without qualification.'
James had been one of the leaders of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment that has overtaken the New York City school's campus, but protest organizers say the comments didn't reflect their values.
The university has not clarified if James has been suspended or permanently expelled.
'Calls of violence and statements targeted at individuals based on their religious, ethnic or national identity are unacceptable and violate university policy,' a school spokesperson said.
Khymani James, a senior at Columbia University, has now been banned from stepping foot on the New York City campus
Khymani James made the comments four months ago and had faced a disciplinary hearing but the university initially took no action
In a recording of the now four month old stream posted to X by Daily Wire journalist Kassy Akiva, James meets with employees of Columbia's Center for Student Success and Intervention over an Instagram post of his that warned Zionists: 'I don't fight to injure or for there to be a winner or a loser, I fight to kill,' they wrote.
A Columbia employee asked: 'Do you see why that's problematic in any way?'
James responded: 'No.'
James continues to defend the position, that all Zionists 'don't deserve to live,' even laughing at one point during the video.
'These are all the same people,' they said. 'The existence of them and the projects they have built, i.e. Israel, it's all antithetical to peace. It's all antithetical to peace. And so, yes, I feel very comfortable, very comfortable, calling for those people to die.'
Sharing their logic to the university employees, James said: 'I think that taking someone's life in certain case scenarios is necessary and better for the overall world. I personally have never killed anyone.
'Thank the lord that no one has put me in that position.'
James then compares Zionists to Hitler and Nazi soldiers, as well as Haitian slave owners, whose slaves had to kill them 'in order to gain their independence.
'These were masters who were white supremacists. What is a Zionist? A white supremacist. So let's be very clear here, I'm not saying that I'm going to go out and start killing Zionists.
'What I am saying is that if an individual who identifies as a Zionist threatens my physical safety in person, i.e. puts their hands on me, I am going to defend myself and in that case scenario, it may come to a point where I don't know when to stop,' they added.
'Zionists don't deserve to live comfortably, let alone Zionists don't deserve to live.
'The same
