The American family members of innocent hostages in Gaza and a few Israeli students at Columbia have filed a lawsuit against several pro-Hamas groups operating on the campuses of Columbia University and Barnard College. They allege that Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) and its mouthpiece, Mahmoud Khalil; Within Our Lifetime (WOL) and its cofounder, Nerdeen Kiswani; Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and its spokesperson, Maryam Alwan; and Columbia Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and its representative, Cameron Jones, “aided and abetted” a terrorist organization.

The suit outlines it this way: “This case is not about individuals and organizations independently exercising their free speech rights to support whatever cause they wish — no matter how abhorrent. Rather, it is about organizations and their leaders knowingly providing substantial assistance — in the form of propaganda and recruiting services — to, and in coordination with, a designated foreign terrorist organization, Hamas.”

There are several damning pieces of evidence that the plaintiffs have put forward to support these allegations.

The Day of Resistance Toolkit is item No. 1. This toolkit allegedly had propaganda, October 7-themed graphics, and even Marxist talking points — i.e., the settler vs. indigenous (oppressor vs. oppressed) paradigm — specially packaged to target progressive, activist college students. It was released on October 7, 2023, and disseminated by CUAD, WOL, SJP, and JVP.

WOL’s Nerdeen Kiswani purportedly published some of the materials on October 7 before the mass release. If true, this indicates either an absurdly fast and organized group effort to print and distribute the mendacious material quickly or, more likely, these groups had prior knowledge of the Hamas attack.

Next, there is the testimony of Shlomi Ziv — a security guard at the Nova music festival who helped get civilians to safety but was kidnapped and brought to Gaza on October 7. He was held in captivity for 246 days. During his time at the mercy of Hamas, his captors bragged that they had “Hamas operatives on American university campuses.” Ziv was then shown pictures and articles of protests at Columbia University.

A couple of additional pieces of evidence that undergird the allegations include: 1.) The protesters handed out literal Hamas propaganda. 2.) There is a potential money trail leading from Hamas to the national chapters of these student groups that went to funding certain protests.

Finally, if true, the most significant indicator that Hamas was working with and through student groups revolves around Columbia’s chapter of SJP. According to the suit, SJP’s Instagram account — which had been dormant for months — went live again three minutes before the October 7 attacks began. SJP’s return to the social media app was accompanied by a post declaring, “We are back!” Below the post, SJP commented, “First general body meeting will be announced soon…stay tuned.”

I think this is likely the most explosive detail in the entire complaint. Three minutes BEFORE the start of the Oct 7th attack (approximately midnight NY time), Columbia SJP activated its months-dormant Instagram account. https://t.co/saSAWBVFAd pic.twitter.com/KbdU2xR2yO

— daniela (@daniela127) <a href=“https://twitter.com/daniela127/status/1904361283643703573?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>March 25, 2025

The Daily Wire’s Ashe Schow isn’t very hopeful that this case will get very far in the state on New York. The Empire State has anti-SLAPP laws that would shut down the lawsuit if the allegations show any indication of attacking the First Amendment rights of those accused.

But regardless of whether this suit can proceed or ultimately gets shot down, it sheds another light on the alleged depth of Columbia University’s complicity in supporting foreign terrorists via the school administration’s own inaction. If any of these allegations are true, Columbia is truly a hotbed of anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorism sentiments. Interim President Katrina Armstrong should be fired. At the very least, the school should lose all of its government funding.

And parents with any sense shouldn’t send their kids there.