A new documentary produced by rapper Macklemore brings audiences to the 2024 Columbia University protests and camp premiered in the U.S. Thursday.
Titled “The Ackampments”, the film follows several anti-Israeli students participating in the demonstrations, and dozens of students set up tents on the Columbia University campus in protest of Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
After repeated refusals to leave, the New York Police Department conducted a mass arrest of Colombia protesters. The movement spread to other campuses and sparked rising debates about freedom of speech, student activism, and anti-Semitism at American universities.
The film’s US release date is elevated after a controversy surrounding the narrator, former Columbian student Mahmoud Khalil. Khalil, a 30-year-old green card holder and spokesperson for the Gaza Solidarity Camp, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this month.
Officials claimed he fraudulently applied to change his immigration status without revealing “membership of certain organizations,” which they said was a reason for deportation.
Video show arrests Colombian anti-Israel leader Mahmoud Khalil
Student protesters marched at the camp site on Monday, April 29, 2024 on New York’s Columbia University campus. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Khalil’s arrest is part of a wider Trump administration’s move to combat anti-Semitism and campus unrest. Another Colombian student, a 21-year-old South Korean national, sued President Donald Trump and senior administration officials after ICE issued an executive arrest warrant. Federal courts temporarily blocked ICE from expelling students on the grounds of excessive concerns about constitutional rights and government.
Khalil also faces lawsuits from Israeli hostage families who accused him and other protest organizers of acting as Hamas’ “propaganda department” on campus.
“The case will ultimately put these recognized terrorists in charge of their actions. It is time to return American campuses to central learning and save the ruthless occupation by Hamas’ misleading accomplices,” the lawsuit states.
As part of the International Documentary Festival, the Camp has held its global premiere in Copenhagen. The film’s directors, Kei Pritsker and Michael T. Workman, described it as “proving to the courage of young people not only to imagine a better world, but to fight for it under violence and suppression.”
Trump administrator urges investigation of “prior knowledge” accused Pro-Hamas university group of “October 7 attacks”
Rapper Macklemore is working on a new documentary that draws audiences at the 2024 Columbia University protests and camps. (Kristy Sparow/Getty Images)
Executive producer Macklemore has been speaking out in supporting the Pro-Palestinian group. The singer’s name is Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, who made anti-American remarks during last year’s “Palestine Will Forever” event in Seattle, where he said: “f — America.”
After a strong objection, he apologized on Instagram, writing: “My thoughts and feelings are not always perfect or polite. Sometimes I slip away and get caught at this moment.”
The rapper frequently posted information about the Israel-Hamas war and opposed Khalil’s detention by ICE.
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“Camp” premiered in New York City Thursday, with other screenings in the coming days before the opening of Los Angeles.
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