Peter Link 🍉🇨🇺🇵🇸🐧Freed from #ICE custody, Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi graduates from Columbia to cheers
from #AssociatedPress #APNews
By JAKE OFFENHARTZ
Updated 5:46 PM EDT, May 19, 2025
"NEW YORK (#AP) — Less than three weeks after his release from an immigration jail, the #Palestinian activist #MohsenMahdawi strode across the graduation stage at #ColumbiaUniversity on Monday morning, savoring a moment the #Trump administration had fought to make impossible.
Draped in a keffiyeh, Mahdawi, 34, paused to listen to the swell of cheers from his fellow graduates. Then he joined a vigil just outside #Columbia’s gates, raising a photograph of his classmate Mahmoud Khalil, who remains in federal custody."
https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-graduation-mohsen-mahdawi-b17b3d7514d760af8835eaf909fb83ac?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share
#DefendAcademicFreedom
#ReleaseMahmoudKhalil
#NoDeportationForRümeysaÖztürk
#NoDeportationForMohsenMahdawi
#StopTheDeportations
#DefendFreeSpeech
#ProtestIsNotACrime
#NeverStopTalkingAboutPalestine
#USA #US #USPolitics #politics #Trump
#news #press @palestine
Freed from ICE custody, Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi graduates from Columbia to cheers
Student activist Mohsen Mahdawi has attended his graduation from Columbia University, weeks after his release from federal custody. The legal U.S. resident was arrested during a citizenship interview as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists. A judge ordered him released weeks later. As he walked across the graduation stage Monday, he received loud applause and cheers from other graduates. He then joined a vigil calling for the release of classmate Mahmoud Khalil, who remains jailed in Louisiana. Mahdawi says his attendance at the graduation marked a victory over the Trump administration and a reminder to others who haven't been so fortunate.