{"id":290387,"date":"2026-02-14T03:57:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T03:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/290387\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T03:57:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T03:57:16","slug":"nyc-public-law-school-to-host-event-on-hamas-tunnels-as-resistance-to-colonization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/290387\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC public law school to host event on Hamas tunnels as ‘resistance to colonization’"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 New York City\u2019s public law school is set to hold an event nexzt month that brands the Hamas terror tunnel network as \u201cdecolonial land use,\u201d highlighting how \u201cresistance\u201d to Israel is packaged in some academic settings.<\/p>\n

Students for Justice in Palestine at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law announced the event earlier this week.<\/p>\n

The gathering, called \u201cThe Underground in Gaza,\u201d will feature a talk by the Columbia University academic Dr. Hadeel Assali, advertisements for the event said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis anthropologic investigation will examine the history and usage of tunnels in Gaza, focusing on land use and social organization in resistance to colonization,\u201d the advertisements said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The event will take place<\/a> in the CUNY Law School\u2019s community room in Manhattan on March 4.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n

The campus branch of Students for Justice in Palestine is listed<\/a> as a recognized student group on CUNY Law\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Students for Justice in Palestine is a loosely linked, national network that has been behind some of the vitriolic protests on campuses since the start of the Gaza war. Immediately after the October 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel, National Students for Justice in Palestine hailed<\/a> the onslaught as a \u201chistoric win for Palestinian resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamas built a vast network of tunnels under Gaza population centers, draining the Strip\u2019s resources for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tA screenshot of an undated video released by the Israel Defense Forces on December 17, 2023, shows Hamas commander Muhammad Sinwar, right, riding in a car traveling through a tunnel under the Gaza Strip. (Screenshot: Israel Defense Forces)<\/p>\n

The tunnels were used to attack Israeli soldiers, hide Hamas terrorists and weapons, and hold hostages. Some of the hostages were\u00a0starved<\/a>, tortured, <\/a>sexually assaulted<\/a> and executed<\/a> in the tunnels.<\/p>\n

The tunnels\u2019 presence in civilian areas contributed to the widespread destruction in Gaza, and Hamas did not allow civilians to take shelter in the underground system. Hamas is a US-designated terrorist group.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tDr. Hadeel Assali (Columbia University)<\/p>\n

CUNY Law is the only publicly funded law school in New York City and its graduates go on to fill many public sector legal jobs<\/a> in the city, such as serving as public defenders, working in the court system or finding employment at nonprofits.<\/p>\n

CUNY did not provide a comment on the event by the time of publication.<\/p>\n

Assali is an anthropologist at Columbia\u2019s Center for Science and Society. Her work examines the \u201congoing colonial legacies of the discipline of geology\u201d and \u201canti-colonial ways of knowing and relating to the earth in southern Palestine,\u201d according to the university website.<\/p>\n

Assali has written repeatedly about the Hamas tunnel network, saying<\/a> in 2024 that the underground network was \u201ca space that evades colonial capture, despite Israel\u2019s claims of military prowess.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tHamas-held hostage Evyatar David filmed digging what he says he fears will be his own grave in a tunnel in Gaza, in a Hamas propaganda video that his family cleared for publication on August 2, 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opacity of the underground is a blind spot for colonial regimes of occupation and surveillance and for settler-colonial states that seek to eliminate the native,\u201d she wrote<\/a> in 2024, calling the tunnels \u201can essential form of resistance in Palestine,\u201d without mentioning Hamas.<\/p>\n

In her doctoral thesis<\/a> in 2021, she said the tunnel network \u201coffers us a case study of the potential of subterranean knowledge to rethink the Earth Sciences and their colonial capitalist paradigms.\u201d Her adviser was Mahmood Mamdani, the father of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who joined<\/a> anti-Israel protests on the Columbia campus.<\/p>\n

Assali teaches a course<\/a> at Columbia called \u201cScience Underground.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has written<\/a> on social media, \u201cKeep supporting our resistance in ALL its forms,\u201d and<\/a>\u00a0\u201cMay we see the end of Zionism and the liberation of Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lawsuit<\/a> filed in 2024 said she had canceled her class sessions during Columbia\u2019s anti-Israel protests and encouraged the students to attend the rallies.<\/p>\n

Her positions lean into the settler-colonial paradigm, an academic framework that has become widespread in universities in recent decades and is often used to vilify the Jewish state as a foreign implant bent on oppression, genocide and apartheid.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tPro-Palestinian demonstrators from CUNY at a rally near Bryant Park, New York City, November 9, 2023. (Luke Tress)<\/p>\n

Critics say the paradigm is a gross misrepresentation of Israel, ignoring Jews\u2019 millennia of history in the land, societal ties to Israel, and Jewish migrants\u2019 history as persecuted refugees fighting for survival in a hostile region.<\/p>\n

A growing movement<\/a> of activist academics says that settler-colonialism is a pillar of anti-Zionist ideology that is often turned against Jews and Jewish peoplehood.<\/p>\n

The CUNY law school has been a hotbed of anti-Israel activism<\/a> for years.<\/p>\n

Two prominent anti-Zionist activists delivered inflammatory commencement speeches at the law school in 2022<\/a> and 2023<\/a>, causing a national uproar.<\/p>\n

A legal nonprofit at the school, Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility (CLEAR), provides legal advice<\/a> to some of the hardline activist groups in the city, including at Columbia. The two commencement speakers were CLEAR alumni who now head Within Our Lifetime<\/a>, likely the leading anti-Zionist activist group in the city.<\/p>\n

The head of CLEAR, Ramzi Kassem, is Mamdani\u2019s chief counsel<\/a>, linking the anti-Zionist activist network to City Hall.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tHamas terrorists carry a white bag believed to contain a body, retrieved from a tunnel during a search for the remains of hostages in Hamad City, Khan Younis, southern Gaza, October 28, 2025. (AP Photo\/Jehad Alshrafi)<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s consul general in New York, Ofir Akunis, sent a letter to CUNY\u2019s leadership on Wednesday demanding the event\u2019s cancellation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupport for such an event constitutes the normalization of terror and crosses a moral red line,\u201d Akunis said.<\/p>\n

CUNY is a sprawling system with 26 colleges and around 240,000 students spread around the city.<\/p>\n

The system has grappled with alleged antisemitism on its campuses for years and has taken measures<\/a> to rein in discrimination against Jews.<\/p>\n

The experience of Jewish students varies widely between the different campuses, and each college has significant autonomy from the central CUNY administration.<\/p>\n

A third-party review<\/a> of antisemitism and discrimination at CUNY last year called for an overhaul of the system\u2019s policies related to antisemitism.<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\tYou appreciate our journalism\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWe\u2019re really pleased that you\u2019ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month. \n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

You clearly find our careful reporting valuable, in a time when facts are often distorted and news coverage often lacks context.<\/p>\n

Your support is essential to continue our work. We want to continue delivering the professional journalism you value, even as the demands on our newsroom have grown dramatically since October 7.<\/p>\n

So today, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6 a month you’ll become our partners while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing\u00a0exclusive content\u00a0available only to Times of Israel Community members.<\/p>\n

Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tJoin Our Community\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tJoin Our Community\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a>
\n\t\t