Columbia student backtracks after controversial comments about Zionists

The vocal student leader of Columbia University’s anti-Israel Gaza Solidarity Encampment said on Friday morning that he “misspoke” in the video in which he repeatedly made the case for why all Zionists deserved to die that was revealed by The Daily Wire on Thursday.

“I am frustrated that the words I said in an Instagram Live video have become a distraction from the movement for Palestinian liberation,” Khymani James said in a statement posted to X. “I misspoke in the heat of the movement, for which I apologize.”

James live-streamed his January meeting with Columbia’s Center for Student Success and Intervention where he was questioned over a social media post where he warned Zionists who may want to “meet up and fight” and that he “fights to kill.”

James accused “far right agitators” of unearthing the video of him from January and editing it “without context.” But the full context of the video, which was saved in its entirety by The Daily Wire, does not paint James in a different light.

In the stream, he made the case for Zionists to die several times and stated “Zionists don’t deserve to live.” The full meeting with Columbia University and his comments afterwards on the livestream are below.

Here is the full Khymani James live-stream that includes his disciplinary meeting with Columbia University over making threatening social media posts.

I saved you all the first 30 minutes where he rants with a friend and started with the school meeting. pic.twitter.com/DfN6mKdlbm

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyDillon) April 26, 2024

James, who goes by “he/she/they” pronouns, is the spokesperson of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) group and has been the visible face of the protests that have garnered national attention, including holding a press conference on Wednesday.

The Daily Wire put together a seven minute compilation of his unhinged comments during the livestream.

It is unclear if he has been removed from his role with the club or as a student from the university, but a Columbia University spokesman indicated that there may have been “disciplinary measures” for his conduct.

“While we do not comment on individual cases, when there are violations of student conduct policies, they are reviewed and disciplinary measures are applied,” the spokesman said.

Meet Khymani James, a student leader of Columbia University’s anti-Israel Gaza Solidarity Encampment who openly states that “Zionists don’t deserve to live”

He made the comments during a meeting with the school that he live-streamed.

We put together the highlights: pic.twitter.com/JFlxnRkNC2

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) April 25, 2024

James said he made the comment because he was feeling “unusually upset after an online mob targeted me because I am visibly queer and Black.”

James said his comments were not in “in line with the CUAD community guidelines,” James continued.

“I agree with their assessment,” he wrote. “Those words do not represent CUAD. They also do not represent me.”

James also went viral earlier this week for leading a protester human chain to push pro-Israel students out of the encampment.

Why are my friends and I being run off our own campus? We are not moving. pic.twitter.com/2T5JLSI0OH

— Jessica Schwalb (@jessicaschwalb7) April 22, 2024

During his live-streamed meeting with Columbia employees, he said he feels “very comfortable” calling for Zionists to die and compared killing Zionists to killing Hitler and Haitian revolutionaries killing “their masters in order to gain their independence.”

“These were masters who were white supremacists. What is a Zionist? A white supremacist. So let’s be very clear here, I’m not saying that I’m going to go out and start killing Zionists. What I am saying is that if an individual who identifies as a Zionist threatens my physical safety in person, i.e., puts their hands on me, I am going to defend myself and in that case scenario, it may come to a point where I don’t know when to stop.”

“I think that taking someone’s life in certain case scenarios is necessary and better for the overall world. I personally have never killed anyone,” he said. “Thank the Lord that no one has put me in that position.”

James added that “there should not be Zionists anywhere” and that “the world is better without them.”

During a break in the meeting, James looked at his camera and cackled after stating that he thinks there employees were “hoping that I was going to walk back the ‘I fight to kill.”

When the meeting concluded, James continued on the live-stream for about 30 minutes where he doubled down on his statements.

“Zionists don’t deserve to live comfortably, let alone Zionists don’t deserve to live,” he said. “The same way we are very comfortable accepting Nazis don’t deserve to live, fascists don’t deserve to live, racists don’t deserve to live, Zionists, they shouldn’t live in this world.”

“Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists,” James also said. “I’ve never hurt anyone in my life, and I hope to keep it that way.”

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