Columbia Law School is slated to host an event early next week with an anti-Israel advocate who works for an organization that Israel considers a terrorist organization due to its alleged ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a violent militant group.
Wesam Ahmad, an official with the Al Haq nonprofit group, a leader in the anti-Semitic movement to boycott Israel, is scheduled to host a discussion on Tuesday at the elite law school, according to a flier advertising the event obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Ahmad will discuss "international law as applied to Palestine."
The event is sponsored by the Columbia Law Students for Palestine, Columbia Law Students Human Rights Association, and the Progressive Jewish Law Society. It comes as Columbia University is being investigated by the Education Department for a spate of anti-Semitic incidents that includes a law school student yelling, "Fuck the Jews" to a classmate wearing a yarmulke. At least 20 Jewish Columbia students accused the school last year of "inaction against anti-Semitism" following a rise in hate speech fueled by Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas.
On Wednesday, students at Columbia hosted a pro-Hamas rally on campus and chanted for an "intifada" in New York City. Earlier this month, Columbia’s Barnard College defended its decision to invite to it’s "Day of Dialogue" pro-terrorist professor Hatem Bazian who has called for the destruction of Israel and intifada in the United States.
Ahmad’s event is already drawing criticism from Jewish advocacy groups that consider his organization, Al Haq, a driving force in the anti-Israel world. Al Haq was designated as a "terror organization" by the Israeli government in October 2021 for being part of "a network of organizations" that operate "on behalf of the ‘Popular Front,'" which the United States also considers a foreign terrorist organization.
Miriam Elman, executive director for the Academic Engagement Network, a group that works to counter Jew hatred on college campuses, expressed concern that Columbia Law School is hosting Ahmad at the same time a newly established campus anti-Semitism group is having trouble gaining approval. That group, Law Students Against Anti-Semitism, was denied approval on Jan. 23 by the law school’s student senate.
"It’s quite ironic, and frankly very disturbing, that a new club to combat anti-Semitism is being silenced while a representative of a group that has documented ties to terror is being given a prominent voice," Elman said. "Ahmad is being invited by student clubs to speak at the same time as a club devoted to educating about anti-Semitism is denied the right to a platform. This double standard is both wrong and outrageous. Columbia's Law School should ensure that the new group Law Students Against Anti-Semitism is approved as soon as possible."
Ahmad has described Israel in the past as "a colonial project from the very beginning," language used by the anti-Israel left to undermine the Jewish state’s existence, according to NGO Monitor, a watchdog group that tracks nonprofits. He also has championed Israel boycotts to erode the country’s economic growth.
In the wake of Hamas’s October 7 terror rampage through Israel, Ahmad’s group, Al Haq, has been accused of promoting the "extremist demonization of Israel" and "blatant rank anti-Semitism," according to NGO Monitor.
"Al-Haq has used the rhetoric of ‘resistance’ and ‘resistance fighters’—code for targeting any and all Israelis, including civilians," the watchdog group reported in December. "Furthermore, some Al-Haq officials have been explicit in defending and supporting terrorism."
Less than a week after Hamas’s terror spree, Al-Haq signed a joint statement justifying the attacks and claiming that "Hamas and other Palestinian resistance movements are the product of Israel’s aggressive occupation."
At the end of October, Al-Haq’s head of legal research and advocacy, Susan Power, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that "there is an international law right to resist [sic]," which critics also viewed as justification for Hamas’s attack.
The group’s legal researcher, Aseel Al-Bajeh stated in October: "We don’t need to speak of our right to resist, for it is not a right, but a way of being & survival for Palestinians."
Columbia University did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Ahmad’s event and the concerns raised by Jewish advocacy groups.