Columbia University finally called in New York police Tuesday night to clear anti-Israel protesters expressing pro-Hamas messages.
But DailyMail.com can now reveal that administrators may need to look internally first if they really want to clean house.
Because a new investigation has uncovered a show of support for Hamas media outlets in – of all places – Columbia’s famed journalism school.
On either side of the entrance to Pulitzer Hall—named for Joseph Pulitzer, the founder of the university’s journalism school and the namesake of the coveted Pulitzer Prize—stands a memorial honoring “journalists” killed in the Israel-Gaza war .
The winners were selected from a list compiled by the nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
However, 21 of the 98 names shown were employed by Hamas propaganda TV and radio stations, 11 worked for media outlets linked to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, and at least three were active suspected terrorists before their deaths.
The school has not publicized the monument, but in February Columbia journalism professor Nina Berman shared a photo of it on her personal Instagram account, accompanied by the following warning: “Anyone commenting questioning or suggesting the legitimacy of these journalists that they are terrorists is immediately blocked.’
While the Columbia Journalism School may view the exhibit as a tribute to “journalists,” the facts suggest otherwise.
On either side of the entrance to Pulitzer Hall—named for Joseph Pulitzer, the founder of the university’s journalism school and the namesake of the coveted Pulitzer Prize—stands a memorial honoring “journalists” killed in the Israel-Gaza war .
DailyMail.com can now reveal that administrators may have to look internally if they really want to drive all terrorist sympathizers off campus.
Mohamed Khalifeh, director of ‘Al Aqsa Television’, is just one of fifteen names remembered who worked for the Hamas-run media network operating in Gaza.
In 2010, the Obama administration designated Al Aqsa TV as a terrorist entity.
“Al-Aqsa is a major Hamas media outlet and broadcasts programs and music videos designed to recruit children to become Hamas armed fighters and suicide bombers once they reach adulthood,” the spokesperson said. The US Treasury Department has taken notice.
‘[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 Al-Aqsa TV’s children’s animation star, a Mickey Mouse-like character named Farfour, were exposed for promoting radical Islam, hatred of Jews and encouraging children to arm themselves with AK-47 assault rifles.
The station’s response to the global outrage was to depict an ‘Israeli’ character beating Farfour to death, before Farfour was replaced by a bee named Nahool, who also preached violence.
Al-Aqsa TV also openly celebrated a terrorist bus bombing in Tel Aviv in 2012, which injured 22 Israelis.
“God willing, we will see body bags soon,” an Al-Aqsa announcer said on air.
In 2016, Obama’s State Department appointed the director of Al-Asqa TV, Fathi Ahmad Mohammed Hammadas a specially designated global terrorist.
In addition to running Al-Aqsa TV, Hammad is Hamas’s interior minister and served as a senior military commander who “coordinated terror cells” and oversaw tunnel construction under Gaza, according to the State Department.
The Obama administration had good reason to be concerned.
“Through social media alone, ISIS was able to recruit more than 100,000 foreign terrorist fighters to come and fight in Iraq/Syria between 2014 and 2017,” retired FBI Counterterrorism Special Agent James G. Conway 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 Hamas’ prominent media entity, it plays a key role in promoting and spreading the Hamas message of incitement to violence and genocide.
(Left) Mohamed Khalifeh, director of ‘Al Aqsa Television’, is just one of fifteen names remembered who worked for the Hamas-run media network operating in Gaza (Right) Iyah El-Ruwagh, presenter of the Al Aqsa Radio Network, is one of six who worked for the Hamas-controlled radio station
Another six names on the Columbia monument worked for the Hamas-controlled radio station Al-Aqsa, a sister entity of Al-Aqsa TV. Among them is Iyah El-Ruwagh, who worked as a presenter for the radio network.
The US has not designated Al-Aqsa radio as a terrorist organization, but there is no denying that Hamas controls the station and uses it for propaganda purposes.
Hamas founded the radio station after taking control of the Gaza Strip in 2006, when it installed its first director, Ibrahim Daher, who reportedly still runs the station.
In a 2014 interview with The Washington Post, Daher, who once described the channel as an instrument of “incitement,” was clear about his goals.
“The most important thing we emphasize is the activity of the resistance, and how many people support it,” he said. “We’re not interested in showing other things, like any success of the Israelis or how businesses have been hurt by the war, or Gazans who have fled the city because of the war.”
The station has also reportedly encouraged civilians in Gaza to act as human shields for Hamas militants.
Georgetown University’s Center for Strategic and International Studies released a report in 2023 that labeled Hamas’s radio station and other media outlets ‘propaganda campaigns’.
The memorial also includes 11 other so-called “journalists” who worked for organizations controlled by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which was designated a terrorist organization by the government in 1997.
At least one of these ‘journalists’ has been accused by Israel of being ‘actively involved in attacks on IDF forces’.
Hamza Al Dahdou, an Al Jazeera correspondent and the son of Al Jazeera bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh, and Mustafa Thuria, a cameraman for Agence-France Press, were both killed by an Israeli airstrike in January.
After the strike, the IDF has released documents claiming this was the case to prove that Dahdouh was a member of Islamic Jihad and that Thuria served in Hamas’s Gaza City Brigade.
At least two of the honored “journalists” have been accused by Israel of being “actively involved in attacks on IDF forces.” (Left) Mustafa Thuria, a cameraman for Agence-France Press, was killed by 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” memorialized by Columbia – named Mohammad Jarghoun (above) – was a member of Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades.
According to an Israeli government-sponsored think tank with close ties to Israeli intelligence, another “journalist” memorialized by Columbia – named Mohammad Jarghoun – was a member of Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades.
It is certainly strange that two respected institutions of American journalism would memorialize “journalists” involved in the production of terrorist propaganda, especially when publicly available information raises serious questions about the integrity of their channels.
Even stranger, they lionize alleged terrorists — even though CPJ claims to explicitly exclude such individuals.
‘We don’t count journalists [in the honored journalists’ list] if 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 said on its website.
Columbia University did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
But the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) — the nonprofit organization that compiled the list of names for the monument on Columbia’s behalf and whose website — said in a statement that its investigation has found no evidence “to date” that any of the persons commemorated ‘were involved in militant activities’.
The CPJ has also committed to ‘[continuing] to investigate the circumstances of each case.”
Todd Bensman is a two-time winner of the National Press Club and a member of the Middle East Forum. He received 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.