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Fifth Column

Freed from ICE custody, Palestinian activist graduates from Columbia to cheers

2025-05-20

[IsraelTimes] Mahdawi Mahdawi joins post-commencement ceremony vigil outside university’s gates, raising photograph of his classmate Mahmoud Khalil, who remains in federal custody

Less than three weeks after his release from an immigration jail, the Paleostinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi strode across the graduation stage at Columbia University on Monday morning, savoring a moment the Trump administration had fought to make impossible.

Draped in a keffiyeh, Mahdawi, 34, paused to listen to the swell of cheers from his fellow graduates. Then he joined a vigil just outside Columbia’s gates, raising a photograph of his classmate Mahmoud Khalil, who remains in federal custody.

"It’s very mixed emotions," Mahdawi told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. "The Trump administration wanted to rob me of this opportunity. They wanted me to be in a prison, in prison clothes, to not have education and to not have joy or celebration."

You already got the education, idiot, though clearly it didn’t take if you are that confused about the situation. “They” just didn’t see reason to keep you in the country long enough to be formally handed that sheepskin while wearing a pseudo-Medieval costume.

Mahdawi, a 34-year-old legal resident of the US, was detained during an April 14 citizenship interview in Vermont, part of the widening federal crackdown on pro-Paleostinian activists.

He was released two weeks later by a judge, who likened the government’s actions to McCarthyist repression. Federal officials have not accused Mahdawi of committing a crime, but argued that he and other anti-Israel student activists should be deported for beliefs that may undermine US foreign policy.

For Mahdawi, who earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Columbia’s School of General Studies,

…perfectly suited for standing behind a counter in colourful polyester for minimum wage, politely asking, “Would you like fries with that?”

the graduation marked a bittersweet return to a university that he says has betrayed him and other students.

"The senior administration is selling the soul of this university to the Trump administration, participating in the destruction and the degradation of our democracy," Mahdawi said.

He pointed to Columbia’s decision to acquiesce to the Trump administration’s demands — including placing its Middle Eastern studies department under new leadership — as well as its failure to speak out against his and Khalil’s arrest.

He said Columbia’s leadership had denied his pleas for protection prior to his arrest, then ignored his attorney’s request for a letter supporting his release from jail.

A spokesperson for Columbia University did not return an emailed inquiry.

Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014. At Columbia, he organized campus protests, led a Buddhist association

…clearly a matter of protective colouration and taqqiya, because while he reportedly meditates beautifully, there is no peace to be found in his heart…

and co-founded the Paleostinian Student Union with Khalil.

The Jordanian-Palestinian graduate philosophy student at Columbia boasted to a Vermont Gun shop owner that he had plenty of experience with guns, having built 9mm submachine guns and used them to kill Jews back home in Palestine — he started his career throwing rocks at IDF soldiers as a child, then led anti-Israel Palestinian student groups since arriving in America a decade ago, true to the traditions in his family where a cousin is an Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade field commander. He is president of the anti-Israel Palestinian Students Union at Columbia, since 10/7 organizing violent anti-Israel protests and taking the opportunity to beat up Jews, for which he was arrested thrice; he was also caught at the Canadian border with drugs, but one imagines the judge did not think that a notable event; Mr. Mahdawi did not think any of this an issue before he was arrested for a revoked green card on his way to his scheduled citizenship exam.

Khalil would have received his diploma from a Columbia master’s program in international studies later this week. He remains incarcerated
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
in Louisiana as he awaits a decision from a federal judge about his possible release.

Mr. Khalil, 30, was a frontman for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the student coalition that spearheaded violent and vicious anti-Israel protests at the school, hosted at least one specially designated foreign terrorist, and broke into, occupied, and vandalized a university building. All of which led the Trump administration to treat Columbia like a post-Civil War southern state in need of Reconstruction.

As he prepares for a lengthy legal battle, Mahdawi faces his own uncertain future. He was previously admitted to a master’s degree program at Columbia, where he planned to study "peacekeeping and conflict resolution"

…no doubt he planned to apply his steller Jew-beating skills to the problem, or perhaps he still prefers his youthful favourites: rocks and homemade submachine guns..

in the fall. But he is reconsidering his options after learning this month that he would not receive financial aid.

Somebody finally noticed the not-so-minor problems with that...

For now, he said, he would continue to advocate for the Paleostinian cause, buoyed by the support he says he has received from the larger Columbia community.

"When I went on the stage, the message was very clear and loud: They are cheering up for the idea of justice, for the idea of peace, for the idea of equality, for the idea of humanity, and nothing will stop us from continuing to do that. Not the Trump administration nor Columbia University," he said.

How much time and federal money do you suppose that particular bit of stupidity cost the university, dear Reader?

The School of General Studies graduation comes two days before Columbia’s university-wide commencement, as colleges across the country are bracing for possible disruptions.

Last week, New York University announced it would withhold the diploma of a student speaker who criticized Israel’s prosecution of the war in 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...
in his graduation speech.

Posted by:trailing wife

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