Five weeks after he was arrested at an appointment, he thought it was a step to become an American citizen, Mohsen Mahdawi On Monday, the stage crossed at Columbia University to cheers and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy.
It was a moment of happiness for him that the Trump government had tried hard to prevent. Mr. Mahdawi, a green card holder of the West Bank who had led Pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Columbia, was held on 14 April by immigration officers as part of a performance against students’ demonstrators.
In recent weeks, the federal judges have released on bail that freed various students who have been detained by the immigration police, including Mr. Mahdawi, in one fell swoop for President Trump’s efforts. But the first to be held, remains Mahmoud Khalil, who would receive his graduate diploma from Columbia this week, in a detention center of Louisiana and will not be at his beginning.
Mr. Mahdawi, 34, received a standing ovation from many of his colleagues on Monday when he crossed the stage and held his hand up in a peace sign. He wore a kaffiyeh over his robe and embraced Lisa Rosen-Metsch, the dean of Columbia’s School of General Studies, while obtaining his diploma.
Although there were no open protests during the ceremony, the tensions of the past year stood up in the speech by Peter Gorman, a student of neuroscience who was the Valedictorian of the School of General Studies.
He called on the class to remember that “this is the first time since 1968 that a graduation course in Columbia has been reduced by suspension for political protest.” It was too, he said, the first time since 1936 “that the graduation class has been reduced by expulsion for political protest.”
For that reason, at least four students were not present, he said. “We shouldn’t forget,” he added. Mr. Gorman received a standing ovation for his speech.
Mr. Mahdawi spent 16 days in a prison in Vermont before a judge ordered his release on bail. Last week the same judge gave him permission to come to New York to finish his Columbia courses and to attend his graduation, to ignore the government’s argument that he was held a risk risk and this should not be allowed.
His presence on Monday was symbolic weight on a campus that was driven by tensions for almost two years, because Pro-Palestinian demonstrations led to avid debate about what anti-Semitism is and what legitimate criticism represents the Israeli government and its actions in Gaza.
Some Jewish students said they were subject to intimidation when demonstrators established a camp and occupied a campus building last spring. Activists who were involved in the pro-Palestinian movement said they were confronted with an unfair punishment for exercising their freedom of expression when denouncing the war of Israel in Gaza.
The School of General Studies, which teaches non -traditional students, also counted among the American military veterans and Israeli students who participated in a Dual -Graise program at the University of Tel Aviv. Some graduates wore yellow and white sashes with the text “bring them home” in a reference to the hostages that are still held by Hamas. They received exciting cheers.
“As a general studies student you have proven that no barriers can stop you,” Dean Rosen-Metsch said the 800 graduates present. “For all of you graduation today, are your Columbians, now and forever. We have experienced a lot together, maybe more than we expected.”
An unofficial alternative graduation ceremony was held on Sunday evening in an Upper West Side Church for Mr. Khalil and other Pro-Palestinian students who could not study. About 50 people, including a number of their role in the campus protests, were named the graduation class of ‘The People’s University for Palestine’.
During that ceremony, Dr. entered Noor Abdalla, Mr. Khalil’s wife, the stage in tears and spoke near a chair that was set up with the cap and dress that he would have worn during graduation.
She said that the ceremony marked another milestone that her husband had missed since his arrest. Last month he experienced the birth of their son, Dane Khalil, by telephone from the detention center in Jena, La.
“Every day since Deen was born, I understand more and more why the fight matters,” said Dr. Abdalla. “I hope he grows up to be as brave as his father and brave as every student here.”
For Mr. Mahdawi, graduating was a moment long. He started his not -graduated studies in computer science more than ten years ago on the West Bank, before he met an American woman and came to the United States in 2014.
In the following years he found different ways to deal with the trauma that he killed as friends and relatives from his former house in a refugee camp in the West Bank.
He became a practicing Buddhist, worked with Jewish peace activists on finding a solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and developed deep ties with the national Vermont community where he moved before their divorce with his wife.
He traveled through the country and gave more than 100 lectures to community groups, synagogues and students about what it was like to be a displaced Palestinian and how all children deserve peace.
Mr. Mahdawi is not accused of a crime. Instead, the State Secretary, Marco Rubio, could possibly undermine his activities the peace process of the Middle East “by strengthening anti -Semitism, according to a memo That was assessed by the New York Times. Pro-Palestinian activists deny that their criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic.
When releasing Mr. Mahdawi on bail, judge Geoffrey W. Crawford of the Federal District Court in Vermont Drew parallels between the current political climate and McCarthyism.
“This is not the first time that the nation has seen horrifying action by the government intended to close the debate,” said Judge Crawford.
Mr. Mahdawi came from the prison defiant. “I say it clearly and loudly, to President Trump and his cabinet: I’m not afraid of you,” he said in a press conference on the day of his release.
Although Mr. Mahdawi’s diploma day came as a temporary victory, the federal case continues against him and try to deport him to the West Bank.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, in a rack Earlier this month he called him a “terrorist sympathizer and threat of national security that does not belong in this country.”
But His supporters call him a bridge buildingand right Crawford ruled that he “does not have a danger to his community or for others.”
During a wake for detained students who were held after graduation, Mr. Mahdawi said that the students who had cheered for him cheered for peace, justice and equality. “Nothing will prevent us from keeping doing that,” he said.
Anvee Bhutani And Eryn Davis contributed reporting.
- Advertisement -
