Columbia pupil of Palestinian origin Mohsen Mahdawi, who was arrested by the ICE brokers when he went for his citizenship interview, stated he knew he was trapped for the arrest and it was not shocking in any respect. After his current launch, he wrote for the New York Occasions that he’s most likely the primary to have been free of detention.
Mahdawi stated he was arrested after he signed a citizenship doc saying that he was prepared to take an oath of allegiance.
“The entice was not a whole shock to me. It got here after different arrests of scholars for exercising their proper to free speech in opposing Israel’s relentless killing and destruction in Gaza. I had ready by contacting attorneys, my Vermont senators and my Home consultant, the media and a bunch of neighborhood members,” Mahdawi wrote, including that he had the privilege to hunt justice.
“Regardless of spending 16 nights in a jail cell, I by no means misplaced hope within the inevitability of justice and the rules of democracy. I wished to turn into a citizen of this nation as a result of I consider within the rules that it enshrines,” he wrote.
“The American authorities accuses me of undermining US overseas coverage, a patently absurd pretext for deportation for political speech that the Trump administration dislikes. The federal government is scraping the underside of the barrel in its makes an attempt to smear me. My solely “crime” is refusing to simply accept the slaughter of Palestinians, opposing battle and selling peace. I’ve merely insisted that worldwide legislation have to be revered. I consider the way in which to a simply and long-lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis is thru diplomacy and restorative justice.”
“I used to be born a third-generation refugee in Al-Far’a camp within the West Financial institution below Israel’s apartheid system. Once I was 8 years outdated, I buried my brother when he died a couple of years after an Israeli army siege blocked his entry to medical care, in the end leading to deadly well being points. As an alternative of celebrating my eleventh birthday, I walked in my uncle’s funeral after he was killed by the Israeli army. I witnessed an Israeli soldier kill my finest childhood good friend once I was 11,” Mahdawi wrote about his private tragedies.
