Rubio Says Detained Palestinian Stoked Antisemitism. Mahdawi’s Israeli Colleague Says the Opposite.

An Israeli associate of Mohsen Mahdawi the Columbia University scholar detained Monday by U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced his targeting is a clear sign that no kind of activism in patronage of Palestine even efforts to build peace with Israelis is the right kind of activism for the Israeli and American right Mahdawi s green card was revoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio under an obscure provision of immigration law that allows the deportation of people deemed to be a threat to U S foreign framework In Mahdawi s matter according to the New York Times Rubio noted without any evidence that the scholar s activism stoked antisemitism that undermined the peace process to end Israel s war in Gaza Mahdawi was vocally opposed to both terrorism and antisemitism disclosed his associate an Israeli former Columbia participant named Mikey Baratz The irony of him of all people being someone they target is so funny to me this person who has denounced violence Baratz commented This 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 various multiple disagreements with the pro-Palestine movement for feeling that they are refusing to moderate The irony of him of all people being someone they target is so funny to me this person who has denounced violence Mahdawi was a leader of Columbia s pupil protest movement against the war on Gaza With often baseless statements that pro-Palestine campus movements were suffused with promotion for terror and antisemitism Mahdawi seemed to be the epitome of what the movement s biggest critics mentioned they yearned to see He became an outspoken supporter of peaceful opposition to the war and speaking in December on Minutes the majority of watched news broadcast in the country denounced antisemitism Since the war has broken out a multitude of of us Israelis have tried to say Well where are the Palestinians who will take a stand Where are the Palestinians who want peace Where are the Palestinians who want coexistence Baratz mentioned It s like Here it is Here this is what we ve been asking for Every Reason to Hate Me Mahdawi had stepped back from the movement in the spring of 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 solutions to build area and peace with Palestinians In October Mahdawi was connected with Baratz then a novice at Columbia University s School of International and Society Affairs The two met for coffee He has every reason to be angry and want violence And he doesn t You re nervous you re really nervous Baratz disclosed of their initial meeting I d had conversations with people in the pro-Palestine movement and they were often constructive but unfailingly formidable Once they started chatting however the mood expeditiously lifted Within minutes we were joking 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 U S Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Vermont Instead of leaving on the path to citizenship as he d hoped Mahdawi was detained by ICE and ordered to be deported to the West Bank 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 He has every reason to hate me Baratz declared He has every reason to be angry and want violence And he doesn t Baratz stated his conversations with Mahdawi were not unfailingly easy but they were essential Mohsen and I do not agree on everything and a few of his views have been challenging for me to hear but the converse of that is that multiple of my views have been equally challenging for Mohsen to hear Baratz revealed As soon as we label all views that we do not like as outside the bounds of what s acceptable then we lose the ability to find a middle ground Against Antisemitism The Trump administration has targeted and deported pro-Palestine students in the name of fighting antisemitism In the lead-up to his arrest Mahdawi became the target of factions on Columbia s campus and among several Zionist groups that have named students publicly or stated they ve sent lists of students to federal agencies for deportation These groups are one doing so much more harm than good and two I mean talk about selective right Baratz noted How can I take anyone seriously talking about Mohsen being antisemitic They don t know Mohsen They don t talk to him In his Minutes interview Mahdawi was solicited about someone making an antisemitic remark at a pro-Palestine protest on Columbia s campus Mahdawi declared he confronted the offender and used a bullhorn to publicly denounce the remark To be antisemitic is unjust Mahdawi notified Minutes And the fight for the freedom of Palestine and the fight against antisemitism go hand in hand because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere A lawsuit filed against the leadership shortly after his detention referenced Mahdawi s detention under the same obscure provision of the immigration law used as the basis for ICE s abduction last month of newest Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil The regime has used the provision to claim that Khalil and Mahdawi s speech on Palestine have adverse procedures consequences for the U S The Trump administration has routinely accused pro-Palestine protesters of supporting terror and conflated their actions with endorsement for Hamas Responses to pro-Palestine campus protests have ranged from the absurd to hypocritical to explicitly violent from suggests that a trainee assaulted administrators by using a bullhorn indoors to contractors painting over protesters to counter-protesters attacking students with what students noted was a chemical spray Read our complete coverage Israel s War on Gaza The notion that targeting people like Mahdawi is working to fight terror not only lays bare the baselessness of declares about the protesters but exposes a double standard being applied Baratz explained Israel s Minister of National Defense has been convicted in Israel for supporting a terrorist organization he noted The charges that are being leveled against Mohsen the Israeli Minister of National Guard has been convicted of in Israel So when do Jews who endorsement him start being evicted from the States Baratz noted Mahdawi reminded him that the only way forward was to keep humanity s shared values in mind If there s anything we as Jews should know it s that this is familiar to us We see ourselves in the other we see ourselves in the stranger Baratz commented Our history is rife with expulsion and prejudice And I hope that maybe this can be an opportunity to remind us that it doesn t have to be this way The post Rubio Says Detained Palestinian Stoked Antisemitism Mahdawi s Israeli Colleague Says the Opposite appeared first on The Intercept