Columbia Spectator Covers AIM Activism Targeting CUAD After “Death to America” Post
March 3, 2026
A truck with digital billboards displayed the names of over 50 students identified as alleged “leaders” of CU Apartheid Divest outside of Columbia’s Morningside campus on Monday and Tuesday after the group sparked a wave of backlash for writing “Marg bar Amrika”—Farsi for “Death to America”—in an X post on Saturday.
CUAD, a pro-Palestinian coalition of student groups which organized the April 2024 “Gaza Soldiarity Encampment,” posted the phrase hours after the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran Saturday, killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and over a hundred civilians.
Although the Saturday post was taken down by X, screenshots of it circulated on the platform, garnering condemnation from several prominent Republican politicians, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.). Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman also called for the expulsion and deportation of the students behind the account.
The University quickly distanced itself from CUAD in an X post and later statement on Sunday following the backlash, noting that CUAD is neither a recognized student group nor affiliated with the University. Columbia added that there was no evidence that anyone controlling the CUAD X account was “a Columbia student, staff, or faculty member.”
“Today, doxxing trucks are circulating Columbia’s campus with a list of individuals who have nothing to do with our organization, claiming that they are members of CUAD,” CUAD posted Monday afternoon on X. “We wish to clarify that our membership is anonymous and not affiliated with Columbia University whatsoever.”
Accuracy in Media, the conservative media group behind the “doxxing truck,” first sent the truck to Columbia’s Morningside campus on Oct. 25, 2023, following campus protests after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, prompting Columbia and Barnard to create the Doxing Resource Group to connect students with personalized resources to combat doxxing.