Freed student: Columbia inciting violence with response to pro-Palestinian protest

Columbia University student and Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi said Columbia’s response to pro-Palestinian protesters storming the library was inciting more violence.  

On Wednesday, Columbia called in the New York Police Department and arrested 80 students after they reportedly stormed the school’s library, injured two employees, carved “Columbia will burn” into framed pictures and would not leave or identify themselves after they were asked. 

“Columbia University is participating in the destruction of the democratic system,” Mahdawi said in an interview with The Associated Press. “They are supporting the initiatives and the agenda of the Trump administration, and they are punishing and torturing their students.” 

The freed student said Columbia is inciting violence instead of rising to the moment to be a “beacon of hope.”

Mahdawi was recently released on bail after the Trump administration arrested him during his naturalization interview to become a U.S. citizen.

He is the first student to be released after being arrested by federal authorities amid President Trump’s crackdown on high-profile pro-Palestinian activists on campuses.  

Mahdawi said those still held in detention should “stay positive and don’t let this injustice shake your belief in the inevitability of justice.”

Detained Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk recently saw a win as a federal appeals court denied the Trump administration’s appeal to keep Öztürk in Louisiana after another judge ordered she be transferred to Vermont.

“People are working hard. Communities are mobilizing,” Mahdawi told the AP. “The justice system has signaled to America with my case, and with Rümeysa's yesterday with the 2nd Circuit, that justice is functioning and checks and balances is still in function.” 

Mahdawi said he will attend his graduation at Columbia despite his disappointment with the university.

“I plan to attend the graduation, because it is a message,” Mahdawi said. “This is a message that education is hope, education is light, and there is no power in the world that should take that away from us.” 

The Trump administration praised Columbia’s swift call to the police due to the protest and said it is confident the school will properly discipline those involved in the demonstration.