Report outlines alleged extremist ties, chronological contradictions for pro-Palestinian activist

SEPTEMBER 2, 2026 14:54A comprehensive 101-page investigative report released on Wednesday by researchers David Collier and Rachel Feldman presents what they describe as a definitive timeline tracking Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist currently facing deportation proceedings.Mahdawi is a Columbia graduate student and prominent pro-Palestinian campus activist who originally moved to the United States from the West Bank as a student, became a lawful permanent resident, and was subsequently targeted for removal by immigration authorities under a provision alleging his campus activism and speech posed adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.Titled Mohsen Mahdawi: A Timeline of Support for Terrorism, the exhaustive document aggregates years of Arabic-language social media posts, historical archives, and public records to challenge the core autobiographical narrative Mahdawi has presented to American audiences, universities, and mainstream media outlets.While Mahdawi’s legal defense team and high-profile political allies have framed his detention and ongoing deportation order as an infringement on free speech and due process, the Collier-Feldman report argues that a vast, previously unexamined digital footprint contradicts his public persona as a peaceful bridge-builder.Because the report centers on allegations and investigative claims, the researchers emphasize that their timeline relies on documentary evidence and contemporary records to question the veracity of Mahdawi’s public biography.COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY student Mohsen Mahdawi poses for a portrait inside Havemeyer Hall on the Columbia University campus in New York City, New York, US, May 18, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/Ryan Murphy/File Photo)At the heart of the researchers' findings is an extensive examination of Mahdawi's personal origin story. For years, Mahdawi has recounted a formative childhood event in the West Bank's Al-Fara'a refugee camp, describing how his best friend, Hameida, was shot dead in front of him, leaving him consumed by a desire for revenge until his uncle Thaer intervened at the graveside to redirect him toward education and hope.According to the report, this foundational narrative collapses under chronological and historical scrutiny. The authors cite B'Tselem casualty databases and records from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights to show that only one child was killed inside Al-Fara'a Camp during the entire Second Intifada, a 14-year-old boy named Muhammad Ahmad Mubaraq Ishteiwi, whose death occurred under circumstances that do not match Mahdawi's accounts.Furthermore, the report claims a critical chronological flaw, pointing out that Mahdawi's uncle Thaer was killed on September 12, 2001, meaning he could not have comforted Mahdawi at a graveside if the incident occurred later, a contradiction the authors claim Mahdawi attempted to navigate by shifting his stated age.One of the most consequential aspects of the Collier-Feldman report focuses on Mahdawi's online activity prior to his arrival in the United States in July 2014, raising serious questions as to how he successfully cleared US visa screenings.Mahdawi alleged to wish annihilation on JewsThe researchers uncovered numerous explicit Arabic-language Facebook posts from the period when Mahdawi was a student leader at Birzeit University.According to the report, which attributes these statements to Mahdawi's Facebook profile, he posted in August 2010 following a devastating civil wildfire in Israel that, as long as "Zionists" were burning, he had no problem with the fire and would "be fuel for it," adding well-wishes that neighboring countries would "all burn along with this fake entity."Later that month on Facebook, responding to an online exchange about patience exceeding its limits, the authors claim Mahdawi explicitly wrote that "soon, very soon, we will annihilate the Jews."The report further details that in January 2011, Mahdawi posted a poem on Facebook addressing his rifle as his "beloved" and anticipating his "coming death," followed in February 2011 by a Facebook attack on political rulers as "servants of the Jews or the Americans," threatening that "their heads will be cut off."According to the document, in August 2011, following a cross-border shooting attack near Eilat that killed six Israeli civilians, Mahdawi used Facebook to refer to the perpetrators as "our mujahideen" and prayed for their "safe escape." In December 2011, the authors state he posted a public Facebook comment saluting Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin and Palestinian Islamic Jihad founder Fathi al-Shiqaqi, and in November 2012, he wrote on Facebook that a Palestinian state could not be established without "an armed resistance that targets every inch of land a Jewish foot has stepped upon."The authors question how these open expressions of hostility and support for terrorist organizations escaped the notice of US consular officials during Mahdawi's 2014 visa application process.The report also details a 2015 Windsor Police report and subsequent FBI interview following allegations from a local gun shop owner that Mahdawi had expressed interest in purchasing automatic weapons and made disturbing remarks regarding his background.Furthermore, the investigation challenges Mahdawi's public framing of family members and friends killed during the conflict. While Mahdawi has frequently memorialized various cousins and relatives as innocent civilians or victims of arbitrary sniper fire, the report cross-references their identities with military records and militant group announcements.The researchers document that multiple family members, including Thaer and Amin Abu al-Kamal, Maysara Masharqa, and Youssef Mahdawi, who was convicted of recruiting a suicide bomber for the 2003 London Café attack, were active commanders or operatives within the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.Mahdawi classifies activism alongside armed resistanceThe report also tracks Mahdawi's post-2023 campus activism at Columbia University, where he co-founded the Palestinian Student Union and helped launch Columbia University Apartheid Divest. The authors highlight a December 2024 Arabic-language video in which Mahdawi explicitly categorized his diaspora campus activism alongside armed resistance in the West Bank and Gaza as components of a unified struggle.Finally, the report notes that despite stepping back from a Facebook group promoting his mother's program, "In the House of a Fighter," which they claim glorified prisoners and terrorists from groups like the PFLP, Mahdawi re-joined and was restored as an administrator as recently as 2026.In a joint statement to The Jerusalem Post, Collier and Feldman said, “The real question is no longer whether Mahdawi has a long history of supporting terrorism. It is about the negligence of the US media. The information was there to be found, and America’s biggest media outlets have written extensively about him. So why did it take two independent Jewish researchers to uncover it?”Follow us on Google