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An Israeli associate<\/span> of Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia University student detained Monday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said his targeting is a clear sign that no kind of activism in support of Palestine \u2014 even efforts to build peace with Israelis \u2014 is the right kind of activism for the Israeli and American right.<\/p>\n Mahdawi\u2019s green card was revoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio under an obscure provision of immigration law that allows the deportation of people deemed to be a threat to U.S. foreign policy. In Mahdawi\u2019s case, according to the New York Times<\/a>, Rubio said without any evidence that the student\u2019s activism stoked antisemitism that undermined the peace process to end Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.<\/p>\n Mahdawi was vocally opposed to both terrorism and antisemitism, said his associate, an Israeli former Columbia student named Mikey Baratz.<\/p>\n \u201cThe irony of him, of all people, being someone they target is so funny to me \u2014 this person who has denounced violence,\u201d Baratz said. \u201cThis is a person who had a split from the protest movement because he felt like they were not self-policing. This is a person who has had many, many disagreements with the pro-Palestine movement for feeling that they are refusing to moderate.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe irony of him, of all people, being someone they target is so funny to me \u2014 this person who has denounced violence.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n Mahdawi was a leader of Columbia\u2019s student protest movement against the war on Gaza.\u00a0<\/p>\n With often baseless allegations that pro-Palestine campus movements were suffused with support for terror and antisemitism, Mahdawi seemed to be the epitome of what the movement\u2019s biggest critics said they wanted to see. He became an outspoken supporter of peaceful opposition to the war and, speaking in December 2023 on \u201c60 Minutes,\u201d the most watched news broadcast in the country, denounced antisemitism.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSince the war has broken out, many of us Israelis have tried to say, \u2018Well, where are the Palestinians who will take a stand? Where are the Palestinians who want peace? Where are the Palestinians who want coexistence?\u201d Baratz said. \u201cIt\u2019s like: \u2019Here it is! Here, this is what we\u2019ve been asking for!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Mahdawi had stepped back from the movement in the spring of 2024 to focus on building bridges with Israeli and Jewish students on campus. Shortly after stepping back from the movement, he began reaching out to colleagues in the protest movement to ask if they knew any Israelis on campus interested in discussing ways to build community and peace with Palestinians.\u00a0<\/p>\n In October 2024, Mahdawi was connected with Baratz, then a student at Columbia University\u2019s School of International and Public Affairs. The two met for coffee.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe has every reason to be angry and want violence. And he doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re nervous, you\u2019re really nervous,\u201d Baratz said of their initial meeting. \u201cI\u2019d had conversations with people in the pro-Palestine movement and they were often constructive but always difficult.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Once they started chatting, however, the mood quickly lifted: \u201cWithin 15 minutes, we were joking.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Baratz worked for the last six months with Mahdawi, who was arrested Monday after he arrived for what he thought was his citizenship interview at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Vermont. Instead of leaving on the path to citizenship as he\u2019d hoped, Mahdawi was detained by ICE and ordered to be deported to the West Bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n Born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Mahdawi has over the years lost at least eight members of his family and had others tortured, imprisoned, and attacked by Israeli forces.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe has every reason to hate me,\u201d Baratz said. \u201cHe has every reason to be angry and want violence. And he doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Baratz said his conversations with Mahdawi were not always easy, but they were essential.<\/p>\n \u201cMohsen and I do not agree on everything, and some of his views have been challenging for me to hear, but the converse of that is that many of my views have been equally challenging for Mohsen to hear,\u201d Baratz said. \u201cAs soon as we label all views that we do not like as outside the bounds of what\u2019s acceptable, then we lose the ability to find a middle ground.\u201d<\/p>\n The Trump administration has targeted and deported pro-Palestine students in the name of fighting antisemitism<\/a>. In the lead-up to his arrest, Mahdawi became the target of factions on Columbia\u2019s campus and several Zionist groups that have named students publicly or said they\u2019ve sent lists of students to federal agencies for deportation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese groups are, one, doing so much more harm than good, and, two \u2014 I mean, talk about selective, right?,\u201d Baratz said. \u201cHow can I take anyone seriously talking about Mohsen being antisemitic? They don\u2019t know Mohsen. They don\u2019t talk to him.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\u201cEvery Reason to Hate Me\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Against Antisemitism<\/strong><\/h2>\n