Dem Senator Visits Detained Columbia Activist Who Said He ‘Can Empathize’ With Hamas’s Decision To Massacre Jews

‘I’m here with our friend from the Upper Valley,’ Peter Welch tells Mohsen Mahdawi

Sen. Peter Welch (D., Vt.) visited detained Columbia University activist Mohsen Mahdawi on Monday, calling him a “friend” and praising his work with “Jewish brothers and sisters” on Columbia’s campus. In the wake of Oct. 7, Mahdawi said he could “empathize” with Hamas’s decision to launch the attack and used a siren to drown out pro-Israel students protesting for the release of Israeli child hostages.

Mahdawi, who, like fellow Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil, saw the Trump administration revoke his green card, is at an immigration facility in Vermont as he fights his deportation. Welch released a video of their Monday meeting at the facility, during which he described Mahdawi as a “friend from the Upper Valley,” commended him for “staying so positive despite your circumstances,” and asked him to describe how he has “worked with some of your Jewish brothers and sisters at Columbia.”

“Most of my partners at Columbia’s campus and beyond are Jews and Israelis,” Mahdawi said. “My work has been centered on peacemaking, and all what I am doing, I am being a human.”

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Some Columbia students, who spoke on background to describe Mahdawi’s campus activism candidly, told a different story. They told the Washington Free Beacon that Mahdawi was friendly with some Jewish students—including pro-Israel ones—a few years ago through his involvement with a campus Buddhist club. But those relationships soured after Oct. 7, the students said, when Mahdawi became focused on denouncing Israel and showed a reluctance to condemn Hamas.

When pro-Israel activists on campus called for the terror organization to release the child hostages it took during the attack, for example, Mahdawi blared a loud alarm that drowned out the speakers. He has also criticized Columbia for allowing Israeli students who served in the military to attend and called on the school to boycott the Jewish state.

Mahdawi praised three terrorist leaders in the Al Qassam Martyrs’ Brigade who were killed, including his “cousin,” a prominent field commander whom he called a “fierce resistance fighter,” the Free Beacon reported.

“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,” wrote Mahdawi in an Instagram post.

Mahdawi also sought to defend Hamas’s attacks and said they were provoked by Israel. Two weeks after Oct. 7, he told a local paper that “Hamas is a product of the Israeli occupation.” He also co-authored a statement published by anti-Israel campus groups that downplayed Palestinian terrorism as 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 breaks out,” the statement read.

In an interview with 60 Minutes, Mahdawi alluded to criticism over that statement. He denied justifying Hamas’s actions but said he “can empathize” with them.

“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 to not look at any event or situation in a vacuum. This is for me that path moving forward,” he said.

Welch’s office did not respond to a request for comment. The senator’s meeting with Mahdawi comes as growing numbers of Democratic lawmakers began pushing for his release.

On Tuesday, 68 members of Congress sent a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem calling the deportation efforts against Mahdawi “immoral, inhumane, and illegal.”