Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia University anti-Israel activist who was arrested and released from a deportation facility this week at the direction of an Obama-appointed judge, allegedly said that he likes to “kill Jews,” despite being painted as a “peaceful” protester by left-wing media.
Mahdawi, a 34-year-old Jordan-born green card holder, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on April 14 after he went to a Vermont immigration office to take a citizenship test, Breitbart News reported.
While the Columbia student’s attorney, Luna Droubi, claimed to the Intercept that he was “unlawfully detained today for no reason other than his Palestinian identity,” the Washington Free Beacon revealed his deep support of Hamas terrorism:
… Mahdawi, an undergraduate who was expected to enroll in a Columbia graduate program in the fall, has also said he “can empathize” with Hamas over the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 slaughter and has publicly called for the destruction of Israel. Last year, he honored a commander in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, a U.S.-designated terror group that participated in the attack alongside Hamas.
Most recently, Mahdawi served as co-president of Columbia’s Palestinian Students Union, a coalition of anti-Israel student groups, including Columbia’s suspended Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace chapters. The union has organized protests calling for Columbia’s divestment from Israel alongside Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the student organization behind the illegal encampments that plagued the school last spring and led to the violent storming of a campus building, Hamilton Hall.
Despite his Hamas support, the New York Times published a puff-piece on Mahdawi titled “He Wanted Peace in the Middle East. ICE Wants to Deport Him,” and he was released from deportation jail on Wednesday by Judge Geoffrey Crawford, a 2014 nominee of former President Barack Obama.
Buried in Crawford’s opinion were allegations from a Vermont gun shop owner and another gun enthusiast who reported alarming, violent opinions shared by Mahdawi while he was shopping for firearms in 2015:
In its response, the Government directs the court’s attention to an incident in summer 2015 when a gun shop owner told Windsor, Vermont police officers that Mr. Mahdawi had visited his store twice, expressing an interest in learning more about firearms and buying a sniper rifle and an automatic weapon and that he “had considerable firearm experience and used to build modified 9mm submachine guns to kill Jews while he was in Palestine.” (Doc. 42-2.) The store owner stated that Mr. Mahdawi took photos of the store and its merchandise. (Id.) The store owner gave the police the name of a fellow gun enthusiast who stated that he had a similar conversation with Mr. Mahdawi at the “Precision Museum” in Windsor where the enthusiast served as a volunteer tour leader. During that conversation, Mr. Mahdawi allegedly told the gun enthusiast, “I like to kill Jews.” (Id.)
Unsurprisingly, the New York Times and other publications running cover for Mahdawi and celebrating his release did not mention his proclivity for wanting to murder Jewish people.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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