Trump Administration Arrests Palestinian Activist Who Condemned Anti-Semitism on ’60 Minutes’
A Palestinian activist who organized protests against Israel over the war in Gaza and condemned anti-Semitism was arrested in Vermont on Monday.
Mohsen Mahdawi, who has a green card, went to an appointment in Colchester that he had been told was a step toward becoming a U.S. citizen. But that was apparently a ruse. According to a statement from Vermont Sens. Bernie Sanders (I), Peter Welch (D), and Rep. Becca Balint (D), Mahdawi, who was co-president of Columbia University’s Palestinian Students Union, was arrested by immigration officers – some of whom wore masks.
“This is immoral, inhumane, and illegal,” they said in a statement. “Mr. Mahdawi, a legal resident of the United States, must be afforded due process under the law and immediately released from detention.”
Mahdawi’s lawyers requested a temporary restraining order to prevent his transportation to a less sympathetic jurisdiction, as the government has done in the cases of Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk, who are both reportedly being held at a detention facility in Louisiana. Mahdawi, Khalil, and Ozturk were all in the country legally and have not been charged with crimes.
U.S. District Judge William Sessions III granted the request and ordered that Mahdawi not be transferred out of Vermont.
The administration has justified the arrests of international students and the revocation of student visas by making generalized allegations of “anti-Semitism” on college campuses. However, in December 2023, Mahdawi was interviewed by Bill Whitaker for a segment on 60 Minutes, where he recalled confronting an anti-Semitic agitator.
“I could not believe what my eyes were seeing, where I see Hamas members getting into settlements and so on,” Mahdawi said of the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel. “But also the first moment I saw that I put my hand on my heart. I started praying, knowing that there will be a huge level of revenge from the Israelis. And I was praying that this will not be the result, because it would be disastrous.”
Whitaker noted that at a pro-Palestine rally, someone began making anti-Semitic remarks.
“The night of the rally, I believe someone in the crowd said something very anti-Jewish, not just anti-Israeli, but anti-Jewish,” Whitaker said.
Mahdawi replied:
Yes. This was as a walkout on November 9th. And a person… comes down the stairs yelling, “Death to Jews.”
I was shocked. And I walked directly to the person and I told him, “You don’t represent us because this is not something that we agree with.” And I took the megaphone and I gave a speech and I said, “We here are conscious, educated students and we know how to separate right from wrong. What this guy has said is clearly anti-Semitic against Jews… To be anti-Semitic is unjust, is unjust. And the fight for the freedom of Palestine and the fight against anti-Semitism go hand in hand because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
The New York Times posted a video of Mahdawi’s arrest on Monday.
Watch above via CBS.
