Anti-Israel Columbia Student Sues School For Suspending Him After Daily Wire Exposé

A Columbia University student who said “Zionists don’t deserve to live” is suing the school for suspending him after The Daily Wire brought his inflammatory remarks to light.

Khymani James made those comments in a January post on Instagram, in which he said that “there should not be Zionists anywhere” and “the world is better without them.” James recorded the video during a meeting with the Center for Student Success and Intervention at Columbia, which had summoned James to discuss earlier anti-Semitic comments he had made.

Columbia, which did not initially take action against James, suspended him one day after The Daily Wire reported his comments on April 25. In the lawsuit, James claims the university only suspended him to save face amid national backlash.

READ MORE: ‘Zionists Don’t Deserve To Live’: Meet The Leader Of Columbia University’s Anti-Israel Encampment

“The timing and language of the sanction letter makes it clear that Columbia acted in response to external forces and national media attention,” the suit, filed in the New York State Supreme Court, reads. “The University is allowing external forces, applying pressure to it, to dictate outcomes in individual student disciplinary cases.”

James announced the lawsuit in a Friday post on X, accusing Columbia of discrimination, as well as “cowering” to “billionaire donors” and “fascist politicians.” In a follow-up tweet, he posted a picture of himself flipping off the camera on a jet ski.

“James has been a victim of Columbia’s anti-Palestinian bias, severely punished, though not himself Palestinian, as a supporter of the rights of the Palestinian people,” the suit states.

It goes on to claim that Columbia violated New York State’s Human Rights Law, New York City’s Human Rights Law, and standards for educational institutions outlined in the 1980 case Tedeschi v. Wagner College.

Columbia University declined to comment. James’ attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

In January 2024, James took to Instagram to warn Zionists who may want to “meet up and fight” that he “fights to kill.” According to the lawsuit, James made these comments after receiving hateful comments for sharing his “anti-genocide political beliefs” about the Israel-Hamas war. James had “no intention of harming anyone,” but merely wanted to “dissuade others from causing him physical harm,” the suit states.

According to the lawsuit, James was in a “highly stressed and anxious mental state” when he live streamed a January 9 meeting with the Center for Student Success and Intervention at Columbia. He did so due to a “powerful sense of being endangered,” to seek sympathy, and to show “how universities repress voices of pro Palestine [sic] students, and especially people of color,” the suit states.

During that meeting, James said he felt “very comfortable” calling for Zionists to die, and compared killing Zionists to killing Hitler. He added that “there should not be Zionists anywhere” and that “the world is better without them.”

“Zionists don’t deserve to live comfortably, let alone Zionists don’t deserve to live,” he said during the live stream. “The same way we are very comfortable accepting Nazis don’t deserve to live, fascists don’t deserve to live, racists don’t deserve to live, Zionists, they shouldn’t live in this world.”

“Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists,” James also said. “I’ve never hurt anyone in my life, and I hope to keep it that way.”

In March, the Center warned James that live streaming the meeting had been added to the list of possible school policy violations he had committed, and that he had “used language that denigrates or shows hostility or aversion toward group members of a protected class.”

The next month, James became a media liaison and “member of the safety team” for Columbia’s newly formed anti-Israel encampment. On April 19, the school notified James that he had violated school rules three times and placed him on disciplinary probation, which allowed him to continue his academic progress with the condition that more violations could lead to further disciplinary actions.

“The April 19 letter finalizes and closes the investigation surrounding the December 2023 complaints, as well as the live streaming of the January 9 disciplinary hearing,” the lawsuit states.

On April 25, The Daily Wire first reported James’ livestream, which quickly gained attention from both mainstream and conservative outlets. That same day, the lawsuit states, a Columbia associate dean contacted James and expressed concern for his safety. The school bought a train ticket home to Boston.

The next day, James says he received a letter announcing his interim suspension for misconduct, based on an April 25 report citing his “disruptive behavior” at an unapproved anti-Israel encampment, where he allegedly “engaged in threatening behavior and made discriminatory remarks about other students.”

James was barred from all Columbia facilities and prevented from completing his studies for the semester, according to the lawsuit, which adds that no other student was suspended that day for participating in the encampment — though some were suspended on other days.

The suit claims that the timing of the new letter “makes it clear that Columbia acted in response to external forces” following The Daily Wire’s initial report. The suit cites Columbia telling CNN, the New York Times, and NBC that James was “banned from campus,” and an April 26 statement from Columbia trustees David Greenwald, Claire Shipman, President Minouche Shafik, and Provost Angela Olinto, that references his remarks and said “one individual whose vile videos have surfaced in recent days is now banned from campus.”

In a since-deleted April post on X, James claimed he “misspoke” when he repeatedly called for Zionists to die in the January livestream.

Here is the full Khymani James live-stream that includes his disciplinary meeting with Columbia University over making threatening social media posts.

I saved you all the first 30 minutes where he rants with a friend and started with the school meeting. pic.twitter.com/DfN6mKdlbm

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) April 26, 2024

In May, James received another letter for participating in a “human chain” at the encampment. A viral video showed James directing protesters to push pro-Israel students out of the encampment. The lawsuit states James was “reasonably engaged in peaceful self help” in this incident.

“One step forward,” James was seen yelling as the crowd repeated after him in unison while stepping forward.

Why are my friends and I being run off our own campus? We are not moving. pic.twitter.com/2T5JLSI0OH

— Jessica Schwalb (@jessicaschwalb7) April 22, 2024

The lawsuit states that the school used the incident in a way that “piles on” to justify further proceedings against James, though it happened about a week before he received the sanction for participating in the protest.

James received a letter in August notifying him that he was suspended for the academic year for his participation in the human chain, the suit states. James has received death threats and suffered from anxiety, fear, and depression since his suspension, the suit claims.

The lawsuit then launches into a tirade against the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce, comparing its hearings on college anti-Semitism to bringing “a new form orf [sic] McCarthyism to the American scene.”

It goes on to claim that Columbia “privileges a class of self-described ‘Zionist Jewish’ people over everyone on campus who does not share their views.”