Quotes
Donated what I could. This situation is chilling, the government arresting someone for exercising their First Amendment rights to speak out against the Israeli government for committing genocide against a whole group of people. Criticizing an unjust government's actions isn't antisemitism."
An anonymous donor wrote on the official Chuffed.com fundraising page
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."
Per the official Chuffed.com fundraising pageHis family has started a fundraiser on Chuffed.org, where they will be posting updates and more details. Any other fundraiser is not associated with the family."
The Center For Constitutional Rights, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization based in New York City, wrote in an Instagram post on WednesdayThis is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,
said Trump in a post on social media on Monday
The University has been involved in this mess for a long time. It's time to stop,
said Katherine Wilson, an adjunct professor at two universities in New York
This is anti-First Amendment. Also, the university is helping ICE arrest its students, and that's wrong and unacceptable,
said Ruby Martin, a protesterMove cops, get out the way, we know you're Israeli trained,
some protesters chanted
This is going to have a chilling effect on immigrant students, they'll be afraid if they express their First Amendment rights to dissent, they'll have to worry about being deported,
Professor Robert Cohen of NYU said
This is the scariest thing on the First Amendment I've seen from the federal government in many many years,
UC Law San Francisco Professor Matt Coles saidThis goes back, it's old right-wing playbook,
Cohen saidThe President does not have the authority to do a cutoff with anybody, he has the authority to start an investigation,
he saidIt is utterly despicable that they are carrying out this authoritarian lurch under the guise of fighting for Jewish safety,
Eva Borgwardt, the national spokesperson for IfNotNow, a Jewish group that is often critical of Israel, said of the Trump administration
Jews, regardless of where they stand on political activism and organizing, feel in their bones how deeply dangerous this is.”
Sophie Ellman-Golan, the director of strategic communications for Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, added
What’s happening on this campus — or to this campus — is not about protecting Jews,
said Marianne Hirsch, a retired English professor and Holocaust scholar whose parents were Holocaust survivorsParticular aspersions cast upon Jewish and Israeli students resonate with the history of antisemitism and, given what we know about the past, such representations can lead to further acts of aggression and exclusion,
the report’s authors wrote last summerPro-Palestinian speech and activism does not mean a lack of safety for Jews,
she addedAny Jew who thinks this is going to start and stop with a few Palestinian activists is fooling themselves,
Amy Spitalnick, who runs the progressive group Jewish Council for Public Affairs and identifies as a progressive Zionist, said on social media on Monday morningNew, aggressive, and legal tactics are clearly needed,
he saidWhat I believe, ... is what the mainstream of the American Jewish community believes. We have always been at the vanguard of free speech.”
he saidWe have a problem with students taking over buildings, which prevents students from going to class, and distributing pro-Hamas materials which advocate for violence against Jews,
he said