Hirsi similarly promoted a fundraiser last month for Mahmoud Khalil, a fellow protest leader and encampment negotiator facing deportation.

By Jessica Costescu, The Washington Free Beacon

Isra Hirsi, the daughter of “Squad” member US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), promoted a fundraiser supporting Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia University student activist facing deportation over his support for Hamas.

Hirsi, a far-left activist, anti-Israel agitator, and Barnard College senior, posted a screenshot of the GoFundMe with a link on her Instagram story on Tuesday evening.

At the time, the fundraiser had collected just over $9,000. By Wednesday afternoon, that ballooned to more than $42,000.

The GoFundMe was launched after ICE detained Mahdawi, a Jordanian native, following the revocation of his green card on Monday.

The fundraiser has a $100,000 goal to cover his legal fees and other expenses while in detention.

Originally, the page said the proceeds would also help Mahdawi “achieve his quest for US citizenship,” but that language was scrubbed on Wednesday afternoon.

“It also seeks to further his advocacy for building understanding between Israelis and Palestinians for the traumas that each has experienced to bring peace and justice to each,” an earlier version of the GoFundMe page read.

But the fundraiser still portrays Mahdawi as an “advocate for peace and justice,” though the Columbia graduate student has repeatedly expressed support for Hamas.

Just two weeks after the terrorist group killed nearly 1,200 Israelis during its Oct. 7 attack, Mahdawi told a New England newspaper that “Hamas is a product of the Israeli occupation.”

According to the newspaper, he also helped pen an Oct. 14, 2023, statement that anti-Israel groups at Columbia issued arguing 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.”

“If every political avenue available to Palestinians is blocked, we should not be surprised when resistance and violence break out,” the statement read.

That December, Mahdawi said he empathizes with Hamas and argued that the terrorist group’s attack should not be looked at in a vacuum.

“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 not look at any event or situation in a vacuum. This is for me the path moving forward,” he said during a 60 Minutes interview.

Last August, meanwhile, Mahdawi posted pictures to his Instagram account honoring the “martyrdom” of his “cousin,” Maysara Masharqa, who served as a prominent field commander in the military wing of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, a US-designated terror group that participated in the Oct. 7 attack alongside Hamas.

Mahdawi praised Masharqa as a “fierce resistance fighter” who had been fighting since he was 17, adding that he spent seven years in an Israeli prison.

“Here is Mesra, who offers his soul as a sacrifice for the homeland and for the blood of the martyrs as a gift for the victory of Gaza and in defense of the dignity of his homeland and his people against the vicious Israeli occupation in the West Bank,” Mahdawi wrote.

And during a Jan. 24, 2024, campus protest, Mahdawi told a crowd of students that “there’s nothing, nothing more honorable than dying for a noble cause.”

He has been heavily involved in activism, serving as a leader in anti-Israel campus groups since first moving to the US more than a decade ago.

The deportation order Mahdawi faces would send him to Judea and Samaria, which he called a “kind of death sentence.”

According to a memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the New York Times reported, the Trump administration is seeking to deport Mahdawi on the grounds that his activities could “potentially undermine” the Middle East peace process by fueling antisemitic sentiment both in the region and globally.

Hirsi similarly promoted a fundraiser last month for Mahmoud Khalil, a fellow protest leader and encampment negotiator facing deportation.

That effort has raked in nearly $557,000 to support Khalil’s legal defense, secure bail if he becomes eligible for release, assist his family, cover medical expenses, and bankroll “long-term justice efforts” to “hold those responsible for his unlawful detention accountable.”

Hirsi has a long history of taking radical positions, including heavy involvement in the anti-Israel movement following Hamas’s attack.

She has participated in protests at Columbia, Barnard’s sister school, and was arrested and suspended in April after refusing to vacate an illegal encampment on the Ivy League school’s campus.

Alongside Khalil, Hirsi is an organizer with Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) and Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), two student groups that have endorsed “armed resistance” and praised terrorists.

Just two weeks ago, CUAD activists defaced a Columbia campus bathroom with red paint and inverted Hamas triangles.

The previous month, a mob led by both CUAD and SJP stormed two Barnard campus buildings, during which radical activists disseminated Hamas pamphlets and clashed with security guards, sending one to the hospital.

Video footage placed Khalil at the most recent building storming.

Following her suspension, Hirsi complained in a Teen Vogue online interview that she was left homeless and without food.

On the first anniversary of Hamas’s attack, Hirsi posted a picture to her Instagram account with the caption, “Resistance is glorious, we will be victorious.”

In October, the Washington Free Beacon reported that Hirsi, whose parents are Somali immigrants, had received “reparations” payments from her white friends on Juneteenth nearly every year since 2019.

Reparations advocates typically push for payments to descendants of African Americans enslaved in the US, and Juneteenth commemorates the nation’s 1865 end of slavery.

Hirsi did not respond to a request for comment.

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The funds will go toward Khalil’s legal defense, secure bail if he becomes eligible for release, assist his family, and cover medical expenses.

By Jessica Costescu, The Washington Free Beacon

Isra Hirsi, the daughter of “Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), championed a fundraiser supporting Mahmoud Khalil, the student activist and foreign national facing deportation by the Trump administration over his pro-Hamas campus organizing.

The online fundraiser was launched after ICE took Khalil into custody Saturday night after the State Department revoked his visa and green card.

By Wednesday afternoon, the fundraiser had raised nearly $270,000, surpassing its $250,000 goal and prompting administrators to set a new target of $500,000.

Hirsi, a far-left activist, anti-Israel agitator, and Barnard College senior, posted a screenshot of the fundraiser with a link to the webpage on her Instagram story Tuesday afternoon, which at the time had raised about $115,000.

The money “will help Mahmoud and his family’s urgent and evolving needs as we work to secure his release and support his family during this incredibly difficult time,” according to the fundraising page.

The funds will go toward Khalil’s legal defense, secure bail if he becomes eligible for release, assist his family, and cover medical expenses. They will also bankroll “long-term justice efforts” to “hold those responsible for his unlawful detention accountable.”

The fundraiser ends by noting, “Mahmoud has dedicated his life to fighting for justice. Now, he needs us to fight for him. Let’s stand together and bring him home.”

On Monday, a New York judge temporarily halted Khalil’s deportation proceedings while the federal court hears a petition challenging his arrest. In the petition, Khalil asserted that there was “no basis” for his arrest and subsequent detention.

Judge Jesse Furman on Wednesday directed attorneys for both parties to submit a joint letter on Friday outlining further plans for arguments in the case.

Hirsi posted another Instagram story throwing shade at university faculty who remained silent following Khalil’s arrest. She shared a post saying “the academic cowers” and added the caption, “if you are wondering where our esteemed faculty are … shameful behavior.”

Hirsi has a history of taking radical positions, becoming heavily involved in the anti-Israel movement after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack.

She has participated in protests at Columbia University, Barnard’s sister school, and was arrested and suspended in April after refusing to vacate an illegal encampment on the Ivy League school’s campus.

Alongside Khalil, Hirsi is an organizer with Columbia University Apartheid Divest and with Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, two student groups that have endorsed “armed resistance” and praised terrorists.

Both groups also led the recent storming of two Barnard campus buildings, during which radical activists disseminated Hamas pamphlets and clashed with security guards, sending one to the hospital. Video footage placed Khalil at the most recent building storming.

Following her suspension, Hirsi complained in a Teen Vogue interview that she was left homeless and without food. On the first anniversary of Hamas’s attack that killed over 1,000 Israelis, Hirsi posted a picture to her Instagram account with the caption, “Resistance is glorious, we will be victorious.”

In October, the Washington Free Beacon reported that Hirsi, whose parents are Somali immigrants, had received “reparations” payments from her white friends on Juneteenth nearly every year since 2019.

Reparations advocates typically push for payments to descendants of African Americans enslaved in the United States, while Juneteenth commemorates the nation’s 1865 end of slavery.

Hirsi did not respond to a request for comment.

Anti-Israel agitators in New York, meanwhile, clashed with police Tuesday during a heated protest against Khalil’s detention, leading to several arrests.

The demonstration was part of a coordinated nationwide walkout by students and faculty at elite colleges across the country.

Among the crowd was Aidan Parisi, a Columbia graduate student who was arrested last spring for storming Hamilton Hall and suspended for his role in an event featuring terror-tied speakers who called for violence against Jews.

Also present was Maryam Iqbal, a Barnard student and vocal anti-Israel activist, who was arrested alongside Parisi during last spring’s illegal encampments at Columbia.

At Columbia, a smaller crowd of about 40 faculty and students walked out of their classes and assembled outside the Low Memorial Library. The protesters called out the interim Columbia president, chanting, “We will never let this slide, Katrina Armstrong you can’t hide” and “Katrina Armstrong what do you say, how many boots did you lick today.”

In a Wednesday statement, Armstrong reiterated her support for all Columbia students.

“I stand by my students, all of my students. I support their right to express their views and to participate in open and respectful dialogue and debate,” she said. “I feel the same responsibility for the wellbeing of all Columbia students as I do for my patients as their doctor. There is nothing more important to me.

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The congresswoman hasn’t responded to comments about her daughter’s arrest.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), one of Israel’s most hostile critics in American politics, has remained silent about the arrest and suspension from school of her daughter following an eruptive anti-Israel protest which convulsed Columbia University in New York this week.

Omar’s daughter, Barnard College junior and sociology major Isra Hirsi, was one of over 100 protesters whom New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers took into custody for staging a riotous and unauthorized demonstration in which students, as well as non-students, declared solidarity with Hamas and called for the destruction of Israel.

On Thursday, Hirsi announced that the school has suspended her for her role in the pandemonium.

Omar’s office did not respond to The Algemeiner‘s request for comment for this story, and the congresswoman has been silent on social media about the arrest and suspension.

Hirsi is a member of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) — a spinoff of a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter that the university suspended for numerous violations of school rules — which recently invited a terrorist to campus.

“Those of us in Gaza Solidarity Encampment will not be intimidated. We will stand resolute until our demands are met. Our demands include divestment from companies complicit in genocide, transparency of Columbia’s investments, and FULL amnesty for all students facing oppression,” Hirsi, the only member of her family to comment publicly on the matter, said on X/Twitter.

“I’m an organizer with CU Apartheid Divest at Columbia SJP, in my three years at Barnard College I have never been reprimanded or received disciplinary warnings. I just received notice that I am of 3 students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.”

Until this week, it was not widely known that Omar’s daughter was an active purveyor of falsehoods about Israel nor that she was a member of anti-Zionist groups that have been accused of antisemitic discrimination and harassment, including physically assaulting Jewish students and stealing missing persons posters of Israelis who were abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7.

Responding to the news of Hirsi’s suspension, US Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) — a member of the so-called “Squad” of far-left lawmakers along with Omar and others — accused Columbia University of punishing the student as revenge for a brief exchange that Columbia President Minouche Shafik had with Omar on Wednesday during a congressional hearing about antisemitism on campus. Omar accused Shafik of suppressing “anti-war” protesters and denied that anyone at Columbia was targeting “Jewish people.”

“The day after Ilhan Omar questioned Columbia’s leadership commitment to free academic expression, the school suspended her daughter? It’s clear what is happening here,” Bowman said on X/Twitter. “Our educational institutions should not be in the business of political reprisals.”

Columbia University began exploding into a welter of anti-Israel protests on Wednesday while Shafik was in Washington, DC testifying before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce about antisemitism on the New York campus, where law enforcement had to be called to pacify the ongoing demonstrations on Thursday.

“Yes, we’re all Hamas, pig!” one protester was filmed screaming during the fracas, which saw some verbal skirmishes between pro-Zionist and anti-Zionist partisans.

“Long live Hamas!” said others who filmed themselves dancing and praising the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas terrorist organization.

“Kill another solider!” they shouted, words that reinforced the theme of Wednesday’s US congressional hearing: “Crisis at Columbia.”

On Thursday, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chair of the education and workforce committee, said that restoring decorum at Columbia was imperative, both for the sake of the school’s credibility as well as for the welfare of Jewish students.

Several news outlets reported on Thursday that a Jewish student was assaulted and told to commit suicide by a protester.

“For Columbia to correct course, the events of the past 36 hours must become a turning point,” Foxx said in a statement.

“Columbia must take the bold and difficult actions necessary to address the pervasive antisemitism, support for terrorism, and contempt for the university’s rules that have been allowed to flourish on its campus. This includes real discipline that matches the severity of offenses by the students, faculty, and staff responsible, including suspension, expulsion, and termination.”

Foxx, who has been leading an investigation into antisemitism at Columbia, said the protest has “underscored” why the school drew the scrutiny of lawmakers.

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