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Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student from the West Bank who attended Columbia University, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Monday during a citizenship interview in Vermont, according to his attorney.
Federal officials say Mahdawi played a central role in disruptive anti-Israel protests on Columbia’s campus in 2024 and engaged in conduct that targeted Jewish students.
Image Credit: ChameleonsEye – Shutterstock.com
A senior State Department source told The New York Post that Mahdawi’s actions included “threatening rhetoric and intimidation” aimed at Jewish students.
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He was reportedly seen directing protesters to physically push pro-Israel students during fall protests at Columbia. University officials later acknowledged that these incidents involved threatening language and behavior.
Mahdawi was co-president of Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a group that celebrated the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack on Israel, which left 1,200 people dead.
The group called the attack “an unprecedented historic moment for the Palestinians in Gaza.” Columbia University suspended SJP in November 2023 for multiple violations of campus protest policies.
Here, Mahdawi says to a crowd: “There is nothing more honorable than dying for a noble cause.”
WATCH THIS
Here’s Mohsen Mahdawi — the Columbia student just detained by Homeland Security — preaching that there’s “nothing more honorable than dying for a noble cause.”We know exactly what he’s glorifying: Jihad.
He came here as a GUEST.
And he used our freedoms to glorify… pic.twitter.com/onlKYB6Ekh— Jews Fight Back (@JewsFightBack) April 14, 2025
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Footage from a December 2023 episode of CBS’s 60 Minutes showed Mahdawi speaking at a campus demonstration in front of a banner reading “By any means necessary.”
In that interview, Mahdawi said he could “empathize” with the Hamas attack. “I did not say that I justify what Hamas has done, I said I can empathize,” he said. “To empathize is to understand the root cause and not look at any event or situation in a vacuum.”
FLASHBACK: 60 Minutes profiled now-detained Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, who said he empathized with Hamas terrorists.
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 15, 2025
The State Department source said Mahdawi’s rhetoric during the protests included referring to Israel Defense Forces as terrorists and shouting through a megaphone at Jewish bystanders and supporters of Israel.
In March, families of hostages still held by Hamas filed a lawsuit accusing SJP of acting as “Hamas’ American propaganda arm” and claimed the group had advance knowledge of the October 7 attack.
The lawsuit referenced a social media post that stated “we are back!!” which was reportedly published just minutes before the massacre began.
On Monday, a video posted to X appeared to show Mahdawi being led away in shackles by federal agents and placed in an unmarked vehicle.
GREAT NEWS
Columbia student and Co-President of the Palestinian Student Union Mohsen Mahdawi has been arrested by ICE
He was infamous for appearing on 60 Minutes and running a lot of the Pro-Hamas rallies that harassed Jewish students.
They got him. Another one bites the… pic.twitter.com/MfDOAaWZF3
— Kosher (@koshercockney) April 14, 2025
His attorney, Luna Droubi, told The Intercept that Mahdawi was:
“Unlawfully detained today for no reason other than his Palestinian identity.”
She added that he came to the U.S. “hoping to be free to speak out about the atrocities he has witnessed, only to be punished for such speech.”
Mahdawi had previously gone into hiding, anticipating that he would be targeted under President Donald Trump’s renewed mass deportation initiative.
He reportedly asked Columbia officials for assistance in securing shelter. He referred to his detention as “kind of a death sentence,” according to The Intercept.
Mahdawi is also known to have been close with another detained Columbia protester, Mahmoud Khalil.
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