Columbia students hosted pro-Hamas couple to speak weeks before campus exploded into anti-Israel protests

Columbia University students hosted a pro-Hamas couple who said 'there is nothing wrong with being a Hamas fighter' two weeks before its campus exploded in anti-Israel protests.

Khaled Barakat was invited to present a seminar called 'Resistance 101' along with his wife Charlotte Kates, the international coordinator of Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

Barakat is allegedly a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the US government for its links to Hamas and Hezbollah.

The PFLP has been involved in several suicide bombings and claimed responsibility for a 2014 attack on a Jerusalem synagogue which killed four rabbis and a policeman. Barakat has denied he is linked to the organization.

However he and Samidoun, and by extension Kates, have been banned from Germany over alleged anti-Semitism, due to the 'celebration of October 7' by Samidoun members. The couple currently reside in Canada.

Columbia University students hosted a pro-Hamas couple who said 'there is nothing wrong with being a Hamas fighter' two weeks before its campus exploded in anti-Israel protests

Charlotte Kates is the international coordinator of Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network which has been banned from Germany after its members allegedly celebrated Oct 7

Kates appeared with her husband Khaled Barakat, who has been accused of being a senior official with the terrorist organization PFLP, an allegation he refutes

The event was titled Resistance 101 and took place on March 24 on campus, with Barakat and Kates attending via video link from Canada

Columbia has been rocked by pro Palestine protests since last Wednesday with an encampment springing up on the West Lawns. As of April 24 the encampment remained (pictured)

During the March 24 seminar, Barakat openly referred to his 'friends at Hamas and Islamic Jihad' during the two hour session, while Kates told attendees, 'there is nothing wrong with being a fighter in Hamas'.

Their event was organized by the Columbia University Apartheid Divest Group which has orchestrated the encampment currently besieging the Ivy League school.

During the meeting, Kates insisted that the designation of certain pro Palestine movements as terrorist organizations is a deliberate tactic to undermine Gaza's resistance movement.

'The fact is, that Hamas is a mass-Palestinian movement that is in a leadership role and there is nothing wrong with being a member of Hamas, being a leader of Hamas, being a fighter in Hamas,' Kates said.

'These are the people that are on the front lines defending Palestine for its liberation.'

Hamas is responsible for the October 7 attack which killed 1,200 Israelis and saw 250 people taken hostage.

Retaliatory strikes by Israel ostensibly to flush out Hamas have since resulted in the death of more than 34,000 innocent Gazans. 

In the same seminar, her husband lauded 'heroic' Palestinian militants who hijacked planes in the 1960s and 70s. 

The Resistance 101 seminar was scheduled to be held at the Barnard Center for Research on Women, but had to be relocated at the last moment after a complaint, according to organizers

Kates told attendees: 'There is nothing wrong with being a member of Hamas, being a leader of Hamas, being a fighter in Hamas'

Four of the students who attended the seminar were later suspended. Pictured: Pro-Palestine protesters gather on the campus of Columbia on April 23, 2024

President Minouche Shafik condemned the external speakers and has since banned them from campus

'It was one of the most important tactics the Palestinian resistance has engaged in and now one single person was injured or killed, yet when you see Hollywood movies not one person was injured,' Barakat said.

However this is inaccurate, 22-year-old passenger Miriam Anderson was killed following an exchange of gunfire during the Sabena hijacking at Tel Aviv airport in 1972.

A further 21 hostages were also killed during a hijacking in 1986 by assailants linked to the Palestinian Abū Niḍāl Organization. 

The Resistance 101 seminar was scheduled to be held at the Barnard Center for Research on Women, but had to be relocated at the last moment after a complaint, according to its organizers. 

Barakat and Kates appeared by video link and the event went ahead elsewhere on the campus. 

President Minouche Shafik slammed it for going ahead without the university's permission and strongly condemned as an 'abhorrent breach of our values'.

She stated the speakers were 'known to support terrorism and promote violence' and that the they have since been banned from campus.

A week later, the university suspended four students for their involvement with the event, Columbia Spectator reports.

Columbia has cowed to protesters and allowed their encampment to remain on campus for an additional 48 hours after a deadline to disperse passed. Pictured: The camp early Wednesday morning

In the midst of the unrest, Columbia president Minouche Shafik has been faced with calls to resign

An activist told a crowd at the campus  on Tuesday that they will be needed to gather en masse in the coming days 

Embattled Shafik is facing renewed calls to resign over the chaotic scenes currently unfolding at her campus.

On Wednesday, it emerged she had crumbled under pressure from pro Palestine protesters and given them a 48 hour extension to disperse after they ignored the original deadline.

It came as demonstrators claim school officials threatened to call in the National Guard to the campus.

In the wake of the alleged threat, one activist called on members of the protest group to 'break up into platoons' in order to defend the encampment.