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Mohsen Mahdawi
Mohsen Mahdawi’s Arrest, Call for Israel’s Destruction, Justification of Hamas Terrorism and Support for the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia)
Mohsen Mahdawi is a leading anti-Israel activist who was arrested in April 2025 for his pro-Hamas activism. He has also called for Israel’s destruction and justified Hamas terrorism in late 2023. Ten years earlier, he celebrated a terrorist who had murdered dozens of Israeli Jews in 1978. Mahdawi also showed support for the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia in April 2024.
Mahdawi made his late 2023 statements after a series of Hamas terror atrocities and war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023. The attacks left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”
Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, European Union, Israel and other countries. Founded in 1987, it has killed thousands of Israeli civilians through mass shootings and suicide bombings. Hamas has also kidnapped children, families and the elderly and held them hostage in Gaza. It has desecrated [slide 7] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
In December 2023, Mahdawi served as co-president of DAR Palestine at Columbia University (Dar at Columbia), Columbia’s Palestinian student union, which is reportedly part of a coalition of 80 anti-Israel student groups. Columbia is located in New York, New York.
Mahdawi was also affiliated with the pro-terror activist group Within Our Lifetime (WOL) in 2023. He was reportedly a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) that same year.
Mahdawi is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
In December 2023, CBS reported [00:07:10] that Mahdawi “grew up in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.”
As of February 20, 2024, Mahdawi, who also goes by Mohsen Khader Mahdawi, was listed in Columbia’s online directory as a student in the Department of Philosophy at Columbia’s School of General Studies.
As of March 7, 2024, Mahdawi’s since-deleted LinkedIn profile said he was slated to graduate from Columbia in 2024.
As of the same date, Mahdawi’s LinkedIn also said he studied computer engineering at Birzeit University (Birzeit) from 2008 to 2014.
Birzeit University’s student body has celebrated terrorists since at least 2003. That year, student government elections featured models of exploding Israeli buses, as parties competed on the basis of which Palestinian faction had killed the most Israelis.
On April 14, 2025, ABC News reported that Mahdawi was arrested by agents from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Immigration Services office in Colchester, Vermont. After his arrest, ICE began the process of deporting him.
In a court filing concerning the immigration status of Mahmoud Khalil, who co-founded the Palestinian Student Union at Columbia with Mahdawi and also faces deportation, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserted that Khalil should be deported because of his role in "antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which fosters a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States."
On November 15, 2023, Mahdawi spoke at an anti-Israel rally titled: “All Out for Gaza at Columbia University,” where he led [00:07:07] the crowd in chanting: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is a chant used [00:02:47] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state. In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic.
Mahdawi then said [00:07:30]: “We were accused by the administration that we are calling for genocide, while the administration itself is ignoring the current genocide that is taking place in Gaza. Shame on you, Columbia!”
Mahdawi continued [00:09:01]: “[Columbia’s] excuse of safety and security is a weaponization of this word, its the same weaponization that Israel has used as a tactic to steal land to con people, to suppress us, to keep us in refugee camps and to commit genocide and apartheid.”
Mahdawi’s mention of “refugee camps” referred to a policy known as the “right of return.”
The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. International law mandates no absolute right of return and UN Resolution 194, which defined principles for “refugees wishing to return to their homes,” was unanimously rejected by Arab nations following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
The rally, which “ended in front of the university’s main entrance,” was reportedly co-organized by WOL and the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law (CUNY Law) chapter of the Jewish Law Students Association (CUNY JLSA).
Mahdawi appeared at the rally wearing a keffiyeh and standing between WOL co-founder and chairperson Nerdeen Kiswani and leading WOL activist Abdullah Akl.
In an October 22, 2023 interview for a local New England newspaper, Mahdawi said: “Hamas is a product of the Israeli occupation.”
According to the newspaper, soon after October 7, 2023, Mahdawi and leaders of other anti-Israel student groups at Columbia wrote a statement that said: “We remind Columbia students that the Palestinian struggle for freedom is rooted in international law, under which occupied peoples have the right to resist the occupation of their land.”
Anti-Israel activists use the term “resistance” to refer to violence and terror perpetrated against Israeli civilians and their allies. It is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence. Anti-Israel activists chant slogans such as: “Resistance by any means necessary!” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” in response to terror attacks.
The statement that Mahdawi reportedly co-authored continued: “If every political avenue available to Palestinians is blocked, we should not be surprised when resistance and violence break out.”
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 2,900 heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation.
Hamas broadcast videos of their butchery on social media, often to victims’ accounts for families to see. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.” As of November 10, 2023, approximately 1,200 Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians, were murdered during the attacks. Hamas kidnapped 242 Israelis, including at least 30 children. At least 3,500 people were wounded, many severely.
A terrorist detained by Israel admitted he raped an Israeli woman when he broke into a kibbutz house during the October 7, 2023 attack. In March 2024, a former hostage of Hamas publicly stated she was sexually abused and tortured while in captivity.
For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
In December 2023, during Israel’s war against Hamas, Mahdawi was interviewed [00:06:07] on the television show “60 Minutes” to discuss his campus activism.
During the interview, Mahdawi said [00:08:17]: “When somebody is hurting you, when you see this person is being punched in the face and this feeling, it is: You now feel my pain.”
The interviewer replied [00:08:30] back to Mahdawi: “But this Hamas attack wasn't a punch in the face. This was a horrible terror attack.”
Mahdawi then said [00:08:43] that he “can empathize” with what Hamas did and continued: “To empathize is to understand the root cause and to not look at any event or situation in a vacuum. This is for me the path moving forward.”
On February 3, 2013, a Facebook user shared a poem Mahdawi wrote that paid tribute to terrorist Dalal Mughrabi. Mahdawi left comments thanking the poster for sharing the text.
The poem said: “I will breathe home… / And fill my shame / And clean my gun / And collect my packages, my bombs / And embrace my gun…”
Dalal Mughrabi, a member of the Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), participated in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre in Israel. She and other terrorists hijacked a bus in an attack that left 38 Israeli civilians dead, including 13 children.
In January 2024, Mahdawi participated [00:00:04] as a speaker at a “divestment now” rally organized by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) and other student organizations. The protest called on Columbia to divest from Israel and promoted [slide 3; 00:00:01] “global intifada.”
The term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” carries the connotation of violence. Palestinian intifadas waged against Israel have been marked since 1987 by hundreds of hijackings, shootings, stabbings, bombings and suicide missions.
On December 5, 2023, Mahdawi posted photos of himself speaking at a November 14, 2023 rally organized by DAR at Columbia and held on the Columbia campus. He wrote on his post: “We come here today to stand tall, to raise our voices, and to lift our spirits…chanting for humanity: Free, free Palestine!”
The aim of the November 14, 2023 rally and another one on November 15, 2023, where he called for Israel’s destruction, was to protest Columbia’s “unjust suspension” of the university’s Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and SJP chapters for violating university policies.
Mahdawi appeared [00:06:02] in an AJ+ video in which he was interviewed during the April 30, 2024 “occupation” of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall by encampment participants. Discussing the university administration’s decision to call in the New York Police Department (NYPD) to clear the locked, barricaded and vandalized building, Mahdawi claimed [00:06:34]: “This [police action] is a strategy that is used by the oppressor, and Columbia University…are doing the same thing.”
On April 30, 2024, participants in Columbia’s second pro-Hamas encampment forced their way into the university’s Hamilton Hall, barricading themselves in the building and taking three Columbia custodians hostage. Protesters also vandalized [00:00:55] and destroyed university property inside the hall. A police raid on Hamilton found knives, gas masks, ropes and literature that read: “...DESTROY zionist business interests everywhere!...DEATH TO AMERICA!...”
On April 17, 2024, Columbia students and anti-Israel activists set up a pro-Hamas “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the university's main lawn. Many participants were arrested and the encampment featured multiple violent incidents, including taking over a campus building and taking a university worker hostage.
Activists protested Israel’s war against Hamas and demanded that Columbia “divest from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation…”
The action had reportedly been planned for months and was organized by the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition. The encampment was also organized by Columbia’s banned pro-Hamas activist group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the university chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Activists reportedly received training from National SJP and other anti-Israel organizations.
Among the encampment leaders was Columbia student Khymani James who had said [00:00:25]: “Zionists…They are nazis!... They’re supporters of genocide! Why would we want people who are supporters of genocide to live?... Be glad, be grateful that I am not just going out and murdering Zionists.” Aidan Parisi, another encampment leader, responded to Columbia’s demand to disband the encampment by declaring online that: “COLUMBIA WILL BURN.”
The encampment was forcibly dismantled at the directive of Columbia’s president and administration. The NYPD [New York Police Department] entered the area, cleared the encampment and arrested more than 100 protestors, approximately 80 of whom were Columbia students. The students were charged with trespassing and suspended from Columbia indefinitely.
The next day, activists created a new encampment. When divestment negotiations with Columbia failed, protesters illegally forced their way into the university’s Hamilton Hall on April 30, 2024. They smashed [00:00:55] through a glass-paneled door, broke security cameras, threw university property out of the windows and unfurled [00:00:01] a banner in the building’s wall that read: “INTIFADA,” a term in Arabic for uprising or insurrection that carries the connotation of violence.
While barricading themselves in the building, agitators kept three Columbia custodians hostage and stopped them from leaving. When the NYPD raided and dismantled the encampment a second time, they arrested more than 100 students, nearly half of whom were reportedly not affiliated with Columbia.
NYPD shared on Twitter photos of objects the police found in Hamilton Hall. These included knives, hammers, gas masks, ropes and a pamphlet that read [video 1]: “...DISRUPT/RECLAIM/DESTROY zionist business interests everywhere! DEATH TO ISRAELI REAL STATE! DEATH TO AMERICA!...LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA!”
Just outside the encampment area, Jewish students were called [slide 2]: “Uncultured a** b**ches!” and were told to “Go back to Europe!” Activists also said [slide 3] to them: “Yahoodim [Jews], yahoodi [Jew], f**k you!” and “Stop killing children!” as they walked from campus to their dorm rooms.
Also just outside the encampment area, anti-Israel activists chanted [slide 5]: “Ya Hamas, ya habib, odrob, odrob Tel Aviv! [Oh Hamas, oh loved one, strike, strike Tel Aviv!]”, a chant that celebrates Hamas rocket attacks against Israel.
An activist just outside the encampment area held [photo 4] a sign that said, referring to the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing: “AL-QASAM’S NEXT TARGETS.” Her sign contained an arrow pointing to a pro-Israel crowd.
On May 31, 2024, Columbia SJP announced that its activists had set up a third encampment at the university. At the encampment, protesters reportedly displayed on a big screen a video that portrayed Hamas as a peace-seeking organization and made a sign that contained an inverted red triangle, a symbol in support of Hamas.
The Columbia encampment reportedly inspired a wave of protest encampments across North American campuses, where pro-Israel students were blocked or restricted from campus facilities. Jewish students were reportedly harassed in several other ways.
SJP is the leading student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses. The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian, who has spread anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group.
SJP organizes anti-Israel campus campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks and pushing the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, and SJP chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for terrorists.
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by pro-terror activist Omar Barghouti in 2005 to turn “Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.” Barghouti has also called for Israel's destruction and the BDS movement demands would result in that same goal.
BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.
The movement’s most notable achievement has been infiltrating university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments propose resolutions to boycott or divestment from Israel or Israeli-affiliated entities. BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents and pro-terror activism on campus.
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