[IsraelTimes] Zaid Mohammed Mahdawi, 26, faces one count of destruction of federal property amid raucous protests that featured antisemitic messaging.
A Virginia man was arrested Friday on a charge that he spray-painted graffiti on a monument in the nation’s capital during protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress in July.
Zaid Mohammed Mahdawi, 26, of Richmond, Virginia, was charged in a complaint with one count of destruction of federal property. He was among thousands of protesters who gathered in Washington, DC, on July 24 to condemn Netanyahu’s visit.
Some demonstrators who gathered outside Union Station that day removed American flags and hoisted Paleostinian ones in their place. Others burned flags and sprayed graffiti on structures in Columbus Circle, in front of Union Station.
Videos posted on social media showed Mahdawi climbing the statue of Christopher Columbus in the middle of Columbus Circle and using red spray paint to write "HAMAS IS COMIN" on the monument, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit. He also spray-painted an inverted red triangle above the slogan, the affidavit says, a symbol of support for Hamas
 ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
attacks.
The FBI later received a tip from a witness who knew Mahdawi from a Richmond gym and recognized his image in a police bulletin.
A group of protesters had a permit to demonstrate in front of Union Station, but the US Park Police said it revoked the permit after it couldn’t reach protest organizers that afternoon. The National Park Service estimated that it cost more than $11,000 to clean up and fix damage at the site.
"Politically motivated destruction or defacing of federal property is not protected speech, it is a crime," Matthew Graves, US Attorney for the District of Columbia, said in a statement.
Mahdawi was expected to make his initial court appearance in Virginia on Friday.
A Maryland woman was arrested last month on a related charge. Isabella Giordano, 20, of Towson, is accused of using red spray paint to write "Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
" on a fountain in front of Union Station and spray-painting the base of two of the flagpoles in Columbus Circle.
Eight out of the 23 people arrested in the protest of thousands face federal crime charges.
Three people were charged with attempting to carry a dangerous weapon, three with attempted theft, one with two counts of assault on a police officer, and one with threats related to the protest, Fox reported.
The protest featured antisemitic and pro-Hamas slogans and signs, the vandalism of property, the torching of an effigy of Netanyahu, and the burning of an American flag.
Several protesters waved Hamas flags and wore the inverted red triangle Hamas uses to identify targets for its violence. One man waved a placard, "Allah is gathering all the Zionists for the ’Final Solution,’" a reference to the Holocaust.
The pro-Paleostinian, anti-Israel demonstrators filled several blocks as they weaved through the streets of the nation’s capital carrying Paleostinian flags, pro-Hamas flags and placards, and signs with messages such as "Arrest Netanyahu" and "End all US aid to Israel." 
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