Columbia University finally sent in the New York Police Department on Tuesday night to remove anti-Israel protesters who were delivering pro-Hamas messages.
But DailyMail.com can now reveal that administrators may have to look internally if they really want to clean house.
Because new research has uncovered support for Hamas media at – of all places – Columbia’s historic journalism school.
Mounted on either side of the entrance to Pulitzer Hall, named for Joseph Pulitzer, founder of the university’s journalism school and namesake of the coveted Pulitzer Prize, is a monument intended to honor “journalists” killed in the war between Israel and Gaza.
Honorees were selected from a list compiled by the nonprofit organization. Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
However, 21 of the 98 names shown were employed by Hamas propaganda radio and television stations, 11 worked for outlets affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group, and at least three were suspected active terrorists before their deaths.
The school has not made the monument public, but in February Columbia journalism professor Nina Berman shared a photo of it on her personal Instagram account, accompanied by the following warning: “Anyone who comments with doubts about the legitimacy of these journalists or suggest that they are terrorists. will be blocked immediately.’
Although, while the Columbia Journalism School may view its exhibit as a tribute to “journalists,” the facts suggest otherwise.
Mounted on either side of the entrance to Pulitzer Hall, named for Joseph Pulitzer, founder of the university’s journalism school and namesake of the coveted Pulitzer Prize, is a monument intended to honor “journalists” killed in the war between Israel and Gaza.
DailyMail.com can now reveal that administrators may have to investigate internally if they really want to expel all terrorist sympathizers from campus.
Mohamed Khalifeh, director of ‘Al Aqsa Television’, is just one of 15 names remembered to have worked for the Hamas-run media network operating in Gaza.
In 2010, the Obama administration sanctioned Al Aqsa TV as a terrorist entity.
“Al-Aqsa is a primary Hamas media outlet and broadcasts programs and music videos designed to recruit children to become Hamas armed fighters and suicide bombers when they reach adulthood,” the report said. The US Treasury Department noted.
‘[We] “We will not distinguish between a company financed and controlled by a terrorist group, such as Al-Aqsa Television, and the terrorist group itself,” the department concluded.
In 2007, the producers of the star of Al-Aqsa TV’s animated children’s show, a Mickey Mouse-like character named Farfour, were exposed for promoting radical Islam, hatred of Jews and encouraging children to arm themselves with rifles. AK-47 assault.
The station’s response to the global outrage was to depict an ‘Israeli’ character beating Farfour to death, before replacing Farfour with a bee named Nahool, who also preached violence.
Al-Aqsa TV also openly celebrated a terrorist attack on a bus in Tel Aviv in 2012 that injured 22 Israelis.
“God willing, we will soon see body bags,” an Al-Aqsa announcer said on air.
In 2016, Obama’s State Department appointed the director of Al-Asqa TV, Fathi Ahmad Mohammad Hammadas a specially designated global terrorist.
In addition to running Al-Aqsa TV, Hammad is Hamas’s interior minister and, according to the State Department, served as a top military commander who “coordinated terrorist cells” and oversaw the construction of tunnels under Gaza.
The Obama administration had good reason to worry.
“Through social media alone, ISIS was able to recruit over 100,000 foreign terrorist fighters to come to Iraq/Syria and fight between 2014 and 2017,” retired FBI Counterterrorism Special Agent James G. told DailyMail.com. .
“The media plays a key role in international terrorism today,” said Conway, who now owns Global Intel Strategies, an international police training company. ‘Al-Aqsa [TV]As a prominent Hamas media entity, it plays a key role in promoting and promulgating Hamas’ message of incitement to violence and genocide.
(Left) Mohamed Khalifeh, director of ‘Al Aqsa Television’, is just one of 15 names remembered to have worked for the Hamas-run media network operating in Gaza. (Right) Iyah El-Ruwagh, host of the Al Aqsa radio network. , is one of six who worked for the Hamas-controlled radio station.
Six other names on the Columbia memorial worked for the Hamas-controlled Al-Aqsa radio station, a sister entity of Al-Aqsa TV. Among them is Iyah El-Ruwagh, who worked as an announcer for the radio network.
The United States has not designated Al-Aqsa radio as a terrorist organization, but it is undeniable that Hamas controls the outlet and uses it for propaganda purposes.
Hamas established the radio station after taking control of the Gaza Strip in 2006, when it appointed its first director, Ibrahim Daher, who reportedly still runs the station today.
In a 2014 interview with The Washington Post, Daher, who once described the station as an instrument of “incitement,” was clear about his goals.
“The main thing we highlight is the activity of the resistance and the support of the people,” he said. “We’re not interested in showing other things, like the success of Israelis or how businesses were hurt by the war, or the Gazans who have fled the city because of it.”
The broadcaster has also reportedly encouraged Gazan civilians to act as human shields for Hamas militants.
Georgetown University’s Center for Strategic and International Studies published a report in 2023 labeling the radio station and other Hamas media outlets. “propaganda campaigns.”
Also included in the monument are eleven other so-called “journalists” who worked for media outlets controlled by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which was designated a terrorist organization in 1997 by the government.
At least one of these “journalists” has been accused by Israel of being “actively involved in attacks against IDF forces.”
Hamza Al Dahdou, an Al Jazeera correspondent and son of Al Jazeera bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh, and Mustafa Thuria, a cameraman for Agence-France Press, were both killed in an Israeli airstrike in January.
After the strike, the The IDF released documents stating to prove that Dahdouh was a member of Islamic Jihad and that Thuria served in Hamas’ Gaza City Brigade.
At least two of the honored “journalists” have been accused by Israel of being “actively involved in attacks against IDF forces.” (Left) Mustafa Thuria, a cameraman for Agence-France Press, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in January. (Right) Hamza Al Dahdou was accused of being a member of Islamic Jihad.
According to an Israeli government-sponsored think tank with close ties to Israeli intelligence, another ‘journalist’ remembered by Columbia – named Mohammad Jarghoun (above) – was a member of Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades.
According to a think tank sponsored by the Israeli government and with close ties to Israeli intelligence, another ‘journalist’ remembered by Columbia – named Mohammad Jarghoun – was a member of Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades.
It is certainly strange that two revered institutions of American journalism would pay tribute to “journalists” involved in the production of terrorist propaganda, especially when publicly available information raises serious questions about the integrity of their media.
It is even stranger that they praise suspected terrorists, although CPJ claims to explicitly exclude such individuals.
‘We do not include journalists [in the honored journalists’ list] whether there is evidence that they were acting on behalf of militant groups or serving in a military capacity at the time of their deaths,” CPJ states on its website.
Columbia University did not readily respond to requests for comment.
But the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the nonprofit organization that compiled the list of names for the memorial in Columbia’s name and whose website, said in a statement that its investigation “to date” has not has found evidence that some of those memorialized “were involved in militant activities.”
CPJ has also committed to ‘[continuing] investigate the circumstances of each case.’
Todd Bensman is a two-time National Press Club Award winner and a member of the Middle East Forum. He earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northern Arizona University and his master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
