Hamas captors cruelly taunted Israeli hostages with information tales and images of antisemitic protests at Columbia College — and bragged about having an “army” of propagandists to unfold their hate, in line with new courtroom papers.
Freed hostage Shlomi Ziv claimed he was proven disturbing photos and tales of the protests that engulfed the Higher Manhattan campus final 12 months whereas he was in captivity within the Gaza Strip.
“With the news report on, his captors told him, ‘You see, we have our own people everywhere,” a courtroom submitting from Thursday stated. “They then told him that Hamas has an ‘army’ operating out of Gaza that focuses specifically on media and sending Hamas propaganda and messaging throughout America.”
The surprising allegation was revealed in an amended lawsuit filed towards a slew of anti-Israel teams in Manhattan federal courtroom for “aiding and abetting Hamas’ continuing acts of international terrorism and violations of the law of nations” following the fear teams Oct. 7, 2023 assault on Israel that left 1,200 useless and lots of kidnapped.
Ziv, who’s a plaintiff within the go well with, was held in captivity for 246 days earlier than he and 4 others have been rescued in an Israel raid in June 2024. He claimed he was proven Al-Jazeera tales and photos of the Columbia protests and that his captors “bragged about having Hamas operatives on American university campuses.”
Filed on behalf of former hostages, the households of slain hostages, and former Israeli army personnel drawn into the Jewish State’s counter-offensive towards Hamas in Gaza, the go well with claims the Ivy League faculty’s protest organizers are primarily an arm of the fear group that impacted their lives.
“The associated defendants acted as Hamas’ foot soldiers in New York City and on Columbia’s campus and enacted [protest organizer’s] plan to disrupt Columbia’s operations to assist Hamas,” the go well with stated.
The lawsuit, initially filed March 24, names a number of campus teams, together with Inside Our Lives, United for Palestine, Columbia College students for Justice In Palestine, Columbia College Apartheid Divest, Columbia-Barnard Jewish Voice For Peace, and particular person group founders or leaders.
Ziv, an Israeli citizen, was working safety on the Nova Music Pageant on Oct. 7 when he was kidnapped. He and different hostages have been starved and overwhelmed “almost every day,” their physician stated.
The Manhattan campus has been a hotbed for anti-Israeli demonstrations which have terrorized Jewish college students — together with among the plaintiffs within the lawsuit who have been enrolled on the faculty.
The varsity is amongst dozens of schools and universities within the US which have seen pro-Palestinian protests, and anti-Israeli encampments following the Oct. 7 assault.
Final week, college students burned their diplomas in protest on the Columbia campus, two weeks after masked pupil protesters stormed into the Butler Library on the faculty.
Final 12 months, a mob of scholars took over Hamilton Corridor on the campus and needed to be compelled out in a wild NYPD raid, resulting in a number of arrests.
