Rep. Ilhan Omar, a member of the “Squad,” showed solidarity with student activists protesting against Israel on the Columbia University campus, while also calling the Jewish state’s military operation in Gaza a “genocide”.
Omar’a’s statement came after her own daughter, Isra Hirsi, was one of nearly 100 activists arrested during a protest at the Ivy League school.
“On Thursday, Columbia arrested and suspended its peacefully protesting students and has now sparked a national movement in solidarity with Gaza,” the controversial Democrat wrote on X.
“This is more than the students hoped for and I am happy to see this type of solidarity.” But to be clear, this is about the genocide in Gaza and the focus must stay on that.
Protests have been widespread on college campuses for a week now, with activists holding often violent rallies at NYU, Yale and MIT.
On Monday evening, a riot broke out following a demonstration by pro-Palestinian students at California Polytechnic University in the city of Arcata.
Omar’a’s statement came after her own daughter, Isra Hirsi, was one of nearly 100 activists arrested during a protest at the Ivy League school.
Omar’s daughter says she has nowhere to live or eat after being suspended for taking part in anti-Israel protests at Columbia University
Hirsi (pictured right with her mother), 21, was part of a multi-day protest in support of Palestine that drew heavy condemnation from both sides of the political spectrum, including from the White House.
Following the protests in New York, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft announced he had withdrawn his donation money to the school.
“The school that I love so much – the one that welcomed me and gave me so many opportunities – is no longer an institution that I recognize,” the Patriots owner and Columbia graduate said Monday.
“I am deeply saddened by the virulent hatred that continues to grow on campus and throughout our country.”
Kraft added: “I hope that Columbia and its leaders will resist this hatred by immediately ending these protests and work to regain the respect and trust of many of us who have lost faith in the institution.
The billionaire also said he hoped Columbia’s Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life would serve “as a source of safety and security for all Jewish students and faculty on campus.”
Hirsi and two of his classmates from Barnard College — the college is a sister school of Columbia — are among the more than 100 protesters who were arrested, an NYPD spokesperson confirmed to DailyMail.com.
Hirsi, junior Soph Askanase and freshman Maryam Iqbal were all suspended. Hirsi has now revealed she was kicked out of her on-campus accommodation and banned from the dining hall, leaving her without shelter or food.
“I was a little frantic, like: Where am I going to sleep? Where am I going to go? And also all my crap is thrown out randomly. It’s pretty horrible,” she told Teen Vogue.
“I was tied up for about seven hours and I was only released for about eight hours,” adding that she was only released for a total of 13 hours after her arrest.
Hirsi, however, reserved her harshest words for Laura Rosenbury, Barnard’s president, who she said overreacted.
“I think it’s really a matter of school by school, and Barnard has decided to take a very blatant stance against us,” Hirsi said.
She said Rosenbury and Barnard leaders “feel like they’re not in the spotlight right now and they have the ability to do it, because (Columbia President Minouche) Shafik was on the congressional stage and is actively harassed about what is happening. she is doing it.
The protests have pitted students against each other, with pro-Palestinian students demanding that their schools condemn the Israeli attack on Gaza and divest from companies that sell weapons to Israel.
Some Jewish students, meanwhile, say much of the criticism of Israel has veered into anti-Semitism and put them in danger, and they point out that Hamas still holds hostages taken during the the group’s invasion on October 7.
Tensions remained high Monday at Columbia, where campus gates were closed to anyone without a school ID and protests broke out both on and off campus.
dailymail us
