Top, Instagram photo from account of Mohsen Mahdawi, who was arrested in Colchester Monday by DHS authorities. Bottom, screenshot from 60 Minutes interview where he expressed ’empathy’ for terrorist organization Hamas.
By Guy Page
A Palestinian man living in the U.S. on a green card and arrested by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Colchester Monday, April 14 has a lengthy history of pro-Palestinian activism and ‘empathy’ for Hamas, including a 60 Minutes interview on which he claimed revenge on Israel when he was 10 years old.
An April 14 VTDigger news story cites a friend of Mohsen Mahdawi claiming the arrested Palestinian owns a second home in West Fairlee, that he is a pacifist trying to unite all sides, and that his arrest violates U.S. law. In apparent contradiction to the pacifist claim, other reports about Mahdawi show he is a Columbia University organizer in tacit support of Hamas and against Israel following the Hamas attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people, including 43 U.S. citizens.
(Christopher Helali of Vershire, the friend of Mahdawi cited by VTDigger, is the elected high bailiff for Orange County. Helali for U.S. Congress as the Communist Party candidate and admits he was on an FBI watch list due to his fighting in the Middle East on the part of pro-Kurdish insurgents against ISIS. See August, 2020 Vermont Daily Chronicle post: “Progressive Party Chair for Orange County runs for U.S House as communist, has Antifa ties.”)
Lawyers for Mahdawi filed a petition in federal court in Vermont alleging unlawful detention. Judge William Sessions issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the removal of Mahdawi from Vermont or the U.S., unless/until he issues another order.
In their petition, Mahdawi’s lawyers alleged the Trump administration “has made clear that it intends to retaliate and punish individuals such as Mr. Mahdawi who advocated for ceasefire and ending the bloodshed in Gaza. Respondents’ actions plainly violate the First Amendment, which protects Mr. Mahdawi’s right to speak on matters of public concern and prevents the government from chilling constitutionally-protected speech.”
However, Mahdawi’s words and actions on behalf of Palestinian armed forces appear to go further than calling for a ceasefire. An Instagram photo of Mahdawi shows him brandishing what appears to be an assault rifle. In 2013, Mahdawi reportedly thanked a Facebook user for sharing a poem that said: “I will breathe home… / And fill my shame / And clean my gun / And collect my packages, my bombs / And embrace my gun…”
Mahdawi told CBS’s 60 Minutes in December, 2023 that he vowed revenge on Israel when he was 10 years old, from the moment an Israeli soldier shot and killed his best friend.
Mahdawi: And I had my best friend with me, Hemida. And suddenly I see an Israeli soldier pointing the rifle at us and he shot my friend in his chest.
60 Minutes host Bill Whitaker: You were how old?
Mahdawi: I was ten years old. And I still remember when we put him in the grave, I held him and I shook him. I said, “Hemida, wake up, wake up.” He didn’t wake up, and I told him, “I promise, I promise, I will revenge.”
Mahdawi is reportedly the ninth Columbia University Palestinian activist to be arrested. Jewish students at Columbia say they were threatened physically and called anti-semitic names by campus Palestinian activists.
During the CBS 60 Minutes interview with Bill Whitaker, Mahdawi claimed “empathy” for Hamas.
Mahdawi: 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.
Whitaker: But this Hamas attack wasn’t a punch in the face. This was a horrible terror attack.
Mahdawi: 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 to not look at any event or situation in a vacuum. This is, for me, the path moving forward.
In a Columbia campus speech, Mahdawi downplayed the Israeli charge of Hamas attempting to commit genocide but instead emphasized what he called Israeli genocide of Palestinians – the responsive military action in Gaza resulting in many thousands of deaths following the October 7 surprise attack.
As Mahdawi is speaking at length, someone is holding a sign that says “Judaism The State of Israel And Its Atrocities.” At no time does Mahdawi rebuke either the sign holder or its message. However, during his speech he does attempt to clarify that the slogan ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” expresses the desire that Jews and Palestinians live together with equal rights.
Nowhere in VDC’s online search of Mahdawi does he rebuke Hamas – a designated terrorist organization responsible for killing 45 Americans on October 7, and others before and after. As he tells 60 Minutes:
Mahdawi: 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.
Whitaker: But this Hamas attack wasn’t a punch in the face. This was a horrible terror attack.
Mahdawi: 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 to not look at any event or situation in a vacuum. This is, for me, the path moving forward.
According to an October 22, 2023 newspaper interview, Mahdawi said: “Hamas is a product of the Israeli occupation.”
According to the interview, 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.”
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.”
The arrest drew criticism from Windsor County Senator Becca White, who was present at the arrest site in Colchester (a DHS office). As reported by VTDigger, White said: “What I learned today is Vermont is not safe. This happened here in Colchester, Vermont, with an Upper Valley resident, a young man who has been deeply ingrained in our community. And it is just so clear that if he can be taken, anyone can be taken.”
Vermont Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., in a joint statement Monday afternoon called the arrest “immoral, inhumane, and illegal.’