The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a Palestinian man at his citizenship hearing on Monday to deport him to the West Bank. His name is Mohsen Mahdawi and they call him a Hamas supporter.
Does this sound like a Hamas supporter? In December of 2023, he said this to 60 Minutes: “The fight for freedom of Palestine and the fight against antisemitism go hand-in-hand because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
He organized protests at Colombia University and spoke about losing his relatives in violent deaths at the hands of the Israeli military. What about this speech says “Jew-hater” as Zionist activist group Betar Worldwide claims?
Mahdawi reportedly invited pro-Israel Columbia professor Shai Davidai to coffee but Davidai left the coffee abruptly and posted this on X about Mahdawi. Mahdawi was also featured on StopAntisemitism.org as the Antisemite of the Week in 2024. They accuse him of antisemitism for chanting “from the river to the sea” and calling Israel occupied territory and speaking about “right of return,” which means that Palestinians would return to the homes that Israel took from them. He called for freedom for the Palestinians “by any means necessary” and said that he can empathize with why Hamas would have launched an October 7 attack.
All of this would be allowed had Mahdawi been able to naturalize as an American but ICE made sure that he could not.
Is this doing anything to prevent antisemitism? It sure doesn’t seem like it. According to a new Pew survey, more people than ever before have an unfavorable view of Israel.
