A radical group that helped organize anti-Israel protests at Columbia University is part of the same anti-American propaganda network behind a new documentary on Apple’s streaming platform that portrays those protests in a positive light and glosses over students’ support for Hamas and other terrorist groups.
The Encampments, produced by the nonprofit BreakThrough Media, tracks the Columbia University students who orchestrated anti-Israel protests at the school last April. Apple TV+, which offers the film to rent for $9.99, bills it as an “insider” look into a “historic moment that continues to reverberate across the globe.”
But it may actually serve as a propaganda coup for a sophisticated network of nonprofit groups funded by pro-CCP tech mogul Neville Roy Singham.
BreakThrough Media, which claims its film debuted as the #3 documentary in Apple’s documentary category, is the media arm of Singham’s propaganda empire. Singham, the husband of CODEPINK founder Jodie Evans, has poured millions of dollars into two nonprofits, The People’s Forum and the Justice and Education Fund. According to tax records, those groups gave more than $1.4 million in grants and office space through 2023 to BreakThrough Media, which operates a popular YouTube channel that features interviews with members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist group, and episodes with titles like “How the pro-Israel lobby hijacked Judaism.” The People’s Forum and BreakThrough Media also share an address, according to a report from the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), a think tank housed at Rutgers University.
The Singham network’s involvement in both the protests and the documentary underscores the extent to which America’s enemies see the anti-Israel campus movement as a means to destabilize the U.S. The NCRI report concluded that the Singham network serves as “the conduit through which CCP-affiliated entities have effectively co-opted pro-Palestinian activism in the U.S., advancing a broader anti-American, anti-democratic, and anti-capitalist agenda.” According to a New York Times report, Singham “works closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing its propaganda worldwide.”
Several BreakThrough Media executives worked on The Encampments, which has so far received buzzy reviews from The Guardian, the New Yorker, and other outlets. BreakThrough journalist Kei Pritzker is a co-director of the movie. Ben Becker, the editor in chief of BreakThrough, is an executive producer of the film, and the movie’s credits acknowledge contributions from BreakThrough host Eugene Puryear. Both Becker and Puryear are founders of the Party of Socialism and Liberation—a far-left organization whose past members include Elias Rodriguez, the suspect accused of murdering two Israeli diplomats outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C.
It’s perhaps no surprise then that The Encampments presents a one-sided view of the Columbia protests and the Israel-Hamas conflict. The movie, which clocks in at 100 minutes, makes little mention of the Hamas attack on Israel, in which 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered. But it includes extensive footage of Israeli military operations in Gaza, and quotes speakers accusing Israel of waging “genocide.”
Many of the activists featured or interviewed in The Encampments have defended or praised Hamas, though those inflammatory remarks are not included in the film.
Pritzker, the director, was filmed alongside Columbia student Naye Idriss at a rally just after Oct. 7 in which she stated that “our resistance stormed illegal settlements and paraglided across colonial borders.” Those remarks are not included in The Encampments, and Idriss is featured in a sympathetic light throughout the movie.
Sueda Polat, a Columbia organizer featured throughout the movie, was a leader of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a group that last year stated “violence is the only path forward.” Grant Miner, another organizer prevalent in the film, was photographed two days after the Hamas attack on Israel holding a sign that read “Resistance against occupation is a human right,” the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda praises the Columbia protesters in the movie, and asserts that “Israel has tormented us forever.” Owda, who was nominated for an Emmy Award last year, spoke at an anniversary gala for the PFLP in 2015. Maya Abdallah and Layan Fuleihan have smaller roles in The Encampments, but both of the activists have defended Hamas’s actions.
The Encampments filmmakers, in an apparent attempt to provide a veneer of historic relevance to the protests, interviewed Jamal Joseph, a Columbia arts professor who took part in anti-Vietnam War protests at the Ivy League campus in 1968. The filmmakers omit that Joseph is a former member of the Black Panther Party who served nine years in prison for manslaughter and for harboring fugitive cop killer Mutulu Shakur after the notorious Brinks armored truck robbery involving members of the Weather Underground terrorist group.
The Columbia organizers also deny concerns from Jewish students about anti-Semitic activity at the school. In one interview, Miner says “it’s completely farcical to imply that in any way that Jewish people are being persecuted or being driven off the encampment.”
The film omits any mention of Khymani James, a Columbia student who was suspended over his calls for violence against Israel supporters, including the statement that “Zionists don’t deserve to live.” CUAD, the group led by “Encampments” heroine Polat, issued a statement in solidarity with James.
And those behind the camera of The Encampments have likewise embraced Hamas or made anti-Semitic statements.
Becker defended Hamas’s actions on Oct. 7 as an act of “national liberation against colonialism.” Puryear praised Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and mocked the “Israeli hipsters” who were slaughtered in the onslaught.
“There was some sort of rave or desert party where they were having a great time until the resistance came in electrified hang gliders and took at least several dozen hipsters,” Puryear said. “But I’m sure they’re doing very fine.”
Apple and BreakThrough Media did not respond to requests for comment.
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