Biden White House Blasts Columbia Student Protest Leader Saying ‘Zionists Don’t Deserve to Live’

Photo by: Andrea Renault/STAR MAX/IPx 2024 4/20/24

The Biden White House released a bevy of statements on Friday related to media coverage of the protests at Columbia University over the Israel-Hamas conflict.

In one statement, Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates slammed the “hateful rhetoric” coming from both sides after pro-Israel protestors chanted “Go to Gaza!” at pro-Palestinian protestors.

Bates also issued a statement for a New York Times article about “one of the leaders of the student protest encampment” who had previously recorded himself saying, “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”

Bates’s statement said, “These dangerous, appalling statements turn the stomach and should serve as a wakeup call. It is hideous to advocate for the murder of Jews. President Biden has been clear that violent rhetoric, hate speech, and Antisemitic remarks have no place in America whatsoever, and he will always stand against them.”

Bates also noted when asked, “Yes, if any White House appointee made such comments, they would be fired immediately.”
The student, Khymani James, also compared Zionists to neo-Nazis “during and after a disciplinary hearing with Columbia administrators that he recorded and then posted on Instagram,” reported the Times.

“These are all the same people,” James said, adding, “The existence of them and the projects they have built, i.e. Israel, it’s all antithetical to peace. It’s all antithetical to peace. And so, yes, I feel very comfortable, very comfortable, calling for those people to die.”