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During the virtual session with one of the speakers, the coordinator told attendees, “There is nothing wrong with being a member of Hamas, being a leader of Hamas, being a fighter in Hamas… These are the people that are on the front lines defending Palestine,” according YouTube footage cited in the WSJ report.
May 4, 2023
Some of the organizers of anti-Israel protests on university campuses across the United States in recent weeks were trained for months by pro-Palestinian activists and left-wing groups, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Student organizers held consultations with groups such as the anti-Israel National Students for Justice in Palestine, veterans of previous campus protests and former Black Panthers, the report says.
In a April 25 post mentioned in the WSJ report, the group shared cartoons giving protesters ideas for “non-violent” resistance, including throwing what appears to be a smoke bomb, jumping over barriers and lifting a garbage can, reminiscent of scenes at activist occupations of university buildings in the past week.
The newspaper article mentions a “Resistance 101” training session that was scheduled at Columbia in collaboration with the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, a Vancouver, Canada-based group that reportedly celebrated the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
The session was banned twice by the university, according to the report, and was eventually held online.
During the virtual session with one of the speakers, Samidoun coordinator Charlotte Kates told attendees, “There is nothing wrong with being a member of Hamas, being a leader of Hamas, being a fighter in Hamas… These are the people that are on the front lines defending Palestine,” according YouTube footage cited in the WSJ report.
