Pro-Palestinian student activist who said ‘Zionists don’t deserve to live’ retracts apology

Pro-Palestinian student activist Khymani James, who was banned from Columbia University for saying “Zionists don’t deserve to live,” is walking back the apology he gave at the time of his expulsion.

In an Instagram Live video at the time, James was seen saying, " Zionists don’t deserve to live ” and “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”

In a now-deleted April post, he had said, “I misspoke in the heat of the moment, for which I apologize.”

Now, he’s taking back the apology.

“I never wrote the neo-liberal apology posted in late April, and I’m glad we’ve set the record straight once and for all,” James wrote Tuesday in an X post . “I will not allow anyone to shame me for my politics. Anything I said, I meant it.”

Last spring, college campuses were embroiled in pro-Palestinian encampments as students called upon their universities to “divest” from investments that directly or indirectly supported Israel due to the war in Gaza.

The coalition that put out a statement condemnin g his speech at the time is also retracting its apology. They said the apology they issued last spring was misleading.

“Last spring, in the midst of the encampments, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) posted a statement framed as an apology on behalf of Khymani James,” CUAD posted Tuesday night on Instagram . “We deliberately misrepresented your experiences and your words, and we let you down.”

“We support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance. Where you’ve exhausted all peaceful means of resolution, violence is the only path forward,” the statement continued.

A post shared by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) (@cuapartheiddivest)

In response, Columbia put out a statement Wednesday, saying the institution condemns any calls for acts of violence.

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“Statements advocating for violence or harm are antithetical to the core principles upon which this institution was founded,” said University Interim President Katrina Armstrong, the university’s provost and executive committee.

“This has seemed so fundamental that it did not require saying; to hear such things in our community is an aberration, whether or not protected by the First Amendment. We must be clear: calls for violence have no place at this or any university,” the statement from Armstrong continued.