‘Be Grateful I’m Not Murdering Zionists’: Columbia University Student Leader Threatens Violence, Retracts Statement Later

A video of a student leader threatening to cause violence against Zionists has gone viral as US universities face massive disruptions to their curriculum due to sweeping pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests.

“Zionists don’t deserve to live. Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists,” student Khymani James said in a video from January. The video emerged on social media this week.

The remarks were made during a meeting between James and the school officials over a social media post about fighting a Zionist.

“I don’t fight to injure or for there to be a winner or a loser, I fight to kill,” he was recorded saying. He appeared to take back his words after the video was watched by many.

He took to X to say that his comments were “wrong”. “Every member of our community deserves to feel safe without qualification,” he further added. He said his previous comments were a response to him being “unusually upset after an online mob” targeted him for being “visibly queer and Black”.

He also accused commentators on the right side of the political spectrum for editing the clip without context. He said that the collective protesting in Columbia, who have declared themselves as the leader of the protests at the university in solidarity with Palestine, “made clear that my words in January” were not acceptable.

“I agree with their assessment, (these words) do not represent me,” James said.

“Calls of violence and statements targeted at individuals based on their religious, ethnic, or national identity are unacceptable and violate university policy,” a Columbia spokesperson was quoted as saying by The Hill.

Student protesters say they are expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where the death toll has topped 34,305, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

More than 200 people protesting the war were arrested Wednesday and early Thursday at universities in Los Angeles, Boston and Austin, Texas, where around 2,000 people gathered again on Thursday.

The spreading protests began at Columbia University, which has remained the epicenter of the student protest movement.