The Palestinian Columbia College scholar arrested by ICE brokers in Vermont led disruptive anti-Israel protests on campus, and engaged in “threatening rhetoric and intimidation” in opposition to Jewish college students, State Division sources inform The Submit.
Mohsen Mahdawi, who hails from the West Financial institution, was at an interview to acquire his US citizenship on Monday when he was picked up by immigration authorities, his lawyer stated.
“Mahdawi, through his leadership and involvement in disruptive protests at Columbia University, has engaged in antisemitic conduct through leading pro-Palestinian protests and calling for Israel’s destruction,” a senior State Division supply stated.
The supply stated screenshots of Mahdawi’s social media exercise that present his virulent anti-Israel views solely inform a part of the story.
“Mahdawi played an active role in fall 2024 student protests at Columbia University, instructing protesters to physically push a small group of pro-Israel students, events that university officials later acknowledged as threatening rhetoric and intimidation,” the supply stated.
The supply additionally stated Mahdawi was behind “antisemitic rhetoric” throughout the protests, together with referring to Israel Protection Pressure troopers as terrorists and “shouting through a megaphone” at Jewish bystanders and supporters of Israel.
Mahdawi was proven in video footage talking right into a microphone throughout a campus protest whereas standing in entrance of a banner studying “by any means necessary” in a profile on CBS’ “60 Minutes” in December 2023.
He additionally stated he might “empathize” with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terror assault in opposition to the Jewish state by which 1,200 males, ladies and kids have been brutally slaughtered, and known as Israel’s response to the bloodbath “a genocide” within the interview.
“I did not say that I justify what Hamas has done, I said I can empathize. To empathize is to understand the root cause and not look at any event or situation in a vacuum.”
Mahdawi was co-president of Columbia College students for Justice in Palestine, which celebrated the Oct. 7 terror assault, calling it “an unprecedented historic moment for the Palestinians in Gaza.”
The college later suspended the group in November 2023 for repeated violations of campus coverage round protests.
Households of hostages nonetheless held by Hamas after the fear assault filed a lawsuit final month that alleged SJP had advance information of Hamas’ bloody plans, accusing it of being “Hamas’ American propaganda arm,” and pointing to an Instagram publish by the group it stated was revealed minutes earlier than the assault proclaiming “we are back!!.”
Video footage posted on X Monday appeared to indicate Mahdawi being escorted together with his fingers shackled in entrance of him and surrounded by federal brokers, who positioned him into an unmarked car.
Mahdawi known as his detention “kind of a death sentence,” based on The Intercept.
Mahdawi, who was associates with detained anti-Israel Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil, anticipated changing into a goal of the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort and went into hiding, asking the college for assist discovering shelter, based on the Intercept.
Mahdawi “was unlawfully detained today for no reason other than his Palestinian identity,” his lawyer, Luna Droubi, informed The Intercept.
“He came to this country hoping to be free to speak out about the atrocities he has witnessed, only to be punished for such speech,” she added.
