Trump’s Free Speech Crackdown Continues with Detention of Mohsen Mahdawi | Palestine Policy Roundup | Palestine Policy Roundup 04.21.25
Welcome to the Palestine Policy Roundup, a weekly publication of the IMEU Policy Project.
👀 ICYMI: MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SPEAK OUT
Rep. Rashida Tlaib on the detention of Mohsen Mahdawi: “DHS has kidnapped another Palestinian legal permanent resident, solely for his noble activism against the genocide. They targeted him at his appointment to finally become a US citizen. This cruelty must end. Free Mohsen now!”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “Mohsen Mahdawi, a green card holder and student activist, was at his citizenship interview when he was kidnapped by ICE agents.Mahmoud, Rumeysa, and now Mohsen—Donald Trump is violating due process and targeting student activists for their political beliefs.”
Rep. Mark Pocan in response to a tweet by AIPAC: “Are you serious? Israel broke the original deal. Now they are bombing Gaza again. And taking land. Criminal. Netanyahu needs to follow the ICC court order and be tried for his crimes.”
DC DEVELOPMENTS
🗣️ NEARLY 70 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SPEAK OUT AGAINST UNCONSTITUTIONAL DETENTION OF MOHSEN MAHDAWI
67 representatives led by Rep. Becca Balint sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling for the release of Palestinian student activist Mohsen Mahdawi from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s unconstitutional detention. It also criticizes this latest brazen attack on free speech and calls Mahdawi’s detention “immoral, inhumane, and illegal.”
Mohsen Mahdawi was ambushed by ICE agents as he arrived at the US Customs and Immigration Services office in Colchester, Vermont for his final citizenship interview on Monday. Like Mahmoud Khalil, Mahdawi is a legal permanent resident married to an American citizen and was a lead student organizer in support of Palestinian rights at Columbia University.
Like Khalil and many other students and academics, he is also being targeted because of his speech and action in support of Palestinian rights under the same draconian provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act according to reports.
Mahdawi is the latest Columbia-affiliated green card holder to be targeted using this provision, after Khalil and Yunseo Chung. Mahdawi is reportedly being held in Vermont–avoiding the Trump administration’s strategy of abducting and whisking away the targets of its mass deportation agenda to places such as Texas and Louisiana.
It remains crucial that members of Congress continue to speak out against Mahdawi’s detention and to challenge the Trump administration’s crackdown on free speech in support of Palestinian rights, which is a fundamental part of the president’s extremist agenda of mass deportations.
IN THE NEWS
🔒 RÜMEYSA ÖZTÜRK REPORTS INHUMANE CONDITIONS IN DETENTION; MEMO CONFIRMS SHE WAS TARGETED OVER SPEECH
In a court filing in Vermont, unconstitutionally detained student Rümeysa Öztürk alleged that the conditions of her detention are “unsanitary, unsafe, and inhumane.” Öztürk said that since she was abducted by ICE agents from Massachusetts last month, she has suffered at least five asthma attacks and has not been given adequate treatment.
Öztürk also accused a nurse of forcing her to remove her hijab without her permission, and said she does not feel safe at the medical center of the detention facility where she is held in Louisiana. She also says that she has limited access to food and toilet paper, and that she has not been given adequate hygiene supplies.
This court filing was a part of Öztürk’s challenge to her detention filed in federal district court in Vermont, where she was briefly detained before being taken more than 1,000 miles away from her home to a detention facility in Louisiana.
The document also details her fear in the moments after she was abducted, thinking ICE agents were vigilantes at first because of their plain clothes. At one point she “was sure they were going to kill [her].” Öztürk also said ICE agents accessed pictures of her without her hijab that were on her phone.
As this case was being heard, The Washington Post revealed an internal State Department memo that made clear that Öztürk is being targeted over her op-ed in support of divestment for Palestinian rights in a Tufts University student newspaper.
The memo also revealed that Öztürk’s status could not be revoked under the provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act under which Mahmoud Khalil and many others have had their statuses revoked. The State Department chose to revoke her status under a different authority that does not require the Secretary of State to provide rationale or evidence.
In a separate hearing in an immigration court in Louisiana, an immigration judge denied bail for Öztürk. The aforementioned memo reportedly was the only piece of evidence submitted by the federal government.
PALESTINE/ISRAEL DEVELOPMENTS
⛺ ISRAELI MILITARY KILLS PALESTINIAN PHOTOJOURNALIST, STRIKES TENTS OF DISPLACED PALESTINIANS IN SO-CALLED HUMANITARIAN ZONE
On Thursday, Israeli strikes killed at least 40 Palestinians who were sheltering in encampments across Gaza. These Palestinians were some of the more than 400,000 who have been displaced again following Israel’s breaking of the ceasefire last month.
At least one strike reportedly targeted the so-called humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi, where the Israeli military has previously forcibly displaced Palestinians multiple times. At least 15 Palestinians, most of whom were women and children, were killed in this attack that also set fire to other tents in the displacement camp. Eyewitnesses reported that the remains of those who were killed by the strike, including children, were charred by the fire. At least two more Palestinians were killed in another strike near the displacement camp.
Israel has routinely attacked Al Mawasi despite suggesting that Palestinians would be safe there while forcibly displacing them from their homes elsewhere in Gaza. On multiple occasions, the Israeli military has struck Al Mawasi with devastating 2,000-pound bombs in apparent war crimes, despite the clear risk of indiscriminate devastation they pose in the densely populated so-called humanitarian zone.
Elsewhere in Gaza on Thursday, the Israeli military reportedly struck a school in the northern city of Jabalia, killing at least six Palestinians there. Seven Palestinians were killed by an Israeli strike on tents in northern Gaza. Between Thursday and Saturday, Israeli strikes killed nearly 100 Palestinians across Gaza.
Among the Palestinians killed last week was Fatima Hassouna, a photojournalist who documented much of the last 18 months of genocide in Gaza. On Wednesday, an Israeli strike hit her home in northern Gaza, killing her and members of her family.
This strike came just a day after it was announced that a documentary focusing on her life during Israel’s genocide, called Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, was selected for Cannes’ ACID film festival. She was also just days away from her wedding date. Before she died, Hassouna wrote on social media: “If I die, I want a loud death. I don’t want to be just breaking news, or a number in a group, I want a death that the world will hear, an impact that will remain through time, and a timeless image that cannot be buried by time or place.”
🍎 ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER ADMITS TO STARVING PALESTINIANS IN GAZA
Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz admitted to using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians in Gaza. Since March 2, Israel has obstructed all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, a violation of the Geneva Conventions and also a violation of Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act, which necessitates the immediate halt of weapons to Israel under US law.
The consequences of this blockade are disturbingly clear. According to a report published by the UN Office on the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 3,000 children in Gaza have been admitted for treatment of acute malnutrition. The number of children receiving nutritional supplements to combat malnutrition also plummeted by more than 60,000 from February, when the ceasefire agreement was still in effect.
OCHA also reported that food consumption has dropped sharply since Israel began its total blockade of Gaza and broke the ceasefire later in March. Key food groups such as meat, dairy, and vegetables are largely absent from the diets of Palestinians in Gaza. Staples like flour, oil, and sugar are often unavailable.
The OCHA report also found that medicine and medical supplies have been severely depleted by the blockade: 87% of consumable medical supplies needed for orthopedic surgeries and nearly all medicines needed for cardiac catheterization are out of stock.
Additionally, a statement published by the heads of 12 humanitarian aid agencies working in Gaza reported that 95% of international and Palestinian aid organizations have had to suspend or cut services as a result of Israel’s breaking of the ceasefire. A survey of humanitarian groups found that 24 of them reported increased movement restrictions within Gaza, and 19 reported that they had cargo stuck outside the area.
Using starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime, which Human Rights Watch found in November 2023 Israel was committing against Palestinians in Gaza. The impunity with which Israel’s violations of international law have been met by the United States has enabled this genocidal act–now the Trump administration is in full support of and complicit in the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.
🏥 ISRAELI ATTACKS ON MEDICAL FACILITIES AND WORKERS CONTINUE AS NEW DETAILS OF AMBULANCE ATTACK SURFACE
Israel once again attacked a medical facility in Gaza just days after it bombed another major hospital last week. An Israeli strike on the Kuwaiti field hospital in Al-Mawasi killed a security guard and wounded nine medics. This attack came just two days after Israel struck the Al Ahli Hospital–at that time the last fully functioning hospital in Gaza–and destroyed part of it just over a week ago. In the first days after it broke the ceasefire, Israel also targeted Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and killed five Palestinians.
Relatedly, more details have surfaced about Israel’s attack on paramedics and rescue workers near Rafah last month. The doctor who performed autopsies on those killed in the attack found that most of the bodies had gunshot wounds to the head and torso, and that there was evidence of the use of “butterfly bullets” which expand in the body on impact. The doctor also found shrapnel in the bodies, possibly suggesting the use of explosive devices.
The Red Cross announced that Assad al-Nassasra, a paramedic who survived the attack by Israeli soldiers and was missing, is being detained by Israel. A report published by Human Rights Watch last year documented Israel’s arbitrary detention and torture of Palestinian medical workers who were abducted from Gaza. The Palestine Red Crescent Society, for which al-Nassasra worked, has called for his release.
Photo: SWinxy, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons