Exclusive | Detained Columbia protester Mohsen Mahdawi threatened and intimidated Jewish students, State Department says

The Palestinian Columbia University student arrested by ICE agents in Vermont led disruptive anti-Israel protests on campus, and engaged in “threatening rhetoric and intimidation” against Jewish students, State Department sources tell The Post.Mohsen Mahdawi, who hails from the West Bank, was at an interview to obtain his US citizenship on Monday when he was picked up by immigration authorities, his lawyer said.“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 Department source said.The source said screenshots of Mahdawi’s social media activity that show his virulent anti-Israel views only tell 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 source said.The source also said Mahdawi was behind “antisemitic rhetoric” during the protests, including referring to Israel Defense Force soldiers as terrorists and “shouting through a megaphone” at Jewish bystanders and supporters of Israel.Mahdawi was shown in video footage speaking into a microphone during a campus protest while standing in front of a banner reading “by any means necessary” in a profile on CBS’ “60 Minutes” in December 2023.He also said he could “empathize” with Hamas’ Oct.7, 2023 terror attack against the Jewish state in which 1,200 men, women and children were brutally slaughtered, and called Israel’s response to the massacre “a genocide” in 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 C...