In today’s article “Leftist Jews Protest Deportation of Hamas Supporter Who Terrorized Columbia“, I discussed the outpouring of support for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia U pro-terror campus organizer from Syria, from Democrats including the Senate Judiciary Committee, AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and the rest of the Squad, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Mayoral candidate Brad Lander.
Now there’s a letter signed by Reps. Tlaib, Omar, and the rest of the Squad, along with 11 other members of Congress, including Rep. Al Green, and a few other Congressional Black Caucus members, hailing the pro-Hamas riots at Columbia and accusing Israel of “oppression” and a “brutal assault” and describing Khalil as a “political prisoner”.
Who is all this for?
The pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia University which resulted in riots, violent assaults, vandalism, pro-terrorist propaganda and harassment of Jews on campus operated as part of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition. Khalil served as a negotiator for the group during its occupation. CUAD’s members included Students for Justice in Palestine or SJP whose current tagline is “Long live the student intifada & glory to our martyrs.”
CAUD’s pro-Hamas sympathies were never in doubt.
On March 24, 2024, CUAD co-organized a pro-terror event that hosted Khaled Barakat, a leader of a foreign terror organization. The event was titled: “Palestinian Resistance 101.”
During the event, Barakat celebrated [00:00:47] the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 Israeli Jews were murdered.
Barakat also praised [00:01:18] “certain tactics that the Palestinian movement have practiced…for example, hijacking airplanes. It was one of the most important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”
In his speech, Barakat referred [00:01:54] to Palestinian terrorists as “my friends and brothers in Hamas, Islamic Jihad…the PFLP.”
This was only a symptom of how extreme Khalil’s group was.
As Ryan Mauro notes, CUAD declared that it was “fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization” and admitted that 
in the Global South.”
Hamas leaders have repeatedly rallied and given instructions to what they called the “student flood” named after the Al-Aqsa Flood which was the Hamas name for Oct 7.
Here are two examples of a Hamas leader giving directions to college pro-Hamas groups like the one that Mahmoud Khalil was part of at Columbia U to aid in their ‘flood’ terrorist campaign
This is why the Trump admin says they’re coordinating with Hamas pic.twitter.com/v2QC3bzgAk
— Daniel Greenfield – “Hang Together or Separately” (@Sultanknish) March 11, 2025
Mauro also documents CUAD’s posts stating that “the only way to respond to state repression” is to storm prisons & release prisoners and burn down prisons, government offices and state vehicles (like police cars).
It describes itself as part of an insurgency in the U.S. “until the empire crumbles”.
This is what Democrats at the highest levels of power are hailing and defending.
