‘Squad’ member Ilhan Omar 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’s statement came after her own daughter, Isra Hirsi, was among about a hundred activists arrested during a protest at the Ivy League school.
“On Thursday, Columbia arrested and suspended its students who were peacefully protesting and have now fueled a nationwide Gaza solidarity movement,” the controversial Democrat wrote on X.
‘This is more than the students had hoped for and I am happy with this form of solidarity. But to be clear: this is about the genocide in Gaza and attention must remain focused on that.”
Protests have been widespread on college campuses for a week now, with activists often holding violent rallies at NYU, Yale and MIT.
Riots broke out Monday evening after a protest by pro-Palestinian students at California Polytechnic University in the city of Arcata.
Omar’s statement came after her own daughter, Isra Hirsi, was among about a hundred 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 participating in anti-Israel protests at Columbia University
Hirsi (pictured right with her mother), 21, was part of a now days-long protest in support of Palestine that has drawn heavy condemnation from both sides of the political spectrum, including the White House
In the wake of the protests in New York, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft announced that he has withdrawn his donation money from the school.
“The school I love so much — the one that welcomed me and provided me with so many opportunities — is no longer an institution 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 across our country.”
Kraft added, “I hope that Columbia and its leadership 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 hopes Columbia’s Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life will be “a source of security and safety for all Jewish students and faculty on campus.”
Hirsi and two of her classmates from Barnard College — the college is a sister school to Columbia — are among the more than 100 protesters arrested, an NYPD spokesperson confirmed to DailyMail.com.
Hirsi, junior Soph Askanase and freshman Maryam Iqbal were all suspended. Hirsi has now revealed that she has been evicted from campus housing and banned from the dining hall, leaving her without shelter and food.
‘I was a bit panicky, like: where am I going to sleep? Where am I going? And also all my shit gets thrown into a random lot. It’s pretty terrible,” she said Teen fashion.
“I was zip-tied for about seven hours and wasn’t released until after eight hours,” adding that she wasn’t released until a total of thirteen hours after her arrest.
Hirsi, however, saved her harshest words for Laura Rosenbury, Barnard’s president, who she said overreacted.
“I think it really varies from school to school, and Barnard has decided to take a very blatant stand against us,” Hirsi said.
She said Rosenbury and Barnard leadership “feels like there’s not a lot of attention on them right now and they have the opportunity to do that because [Columbia President Minouche] Shafik was on the conference stage and is being actively harassed about what she is doing.”
The protests have pitted students against each other, with pro-Palestinian students demanding that their schools condemn the Israeli attack on Gaza and divest companies that sell weapons to Israel.
Some Jewish students, meanwhile, say much of the criticism of Israel has turned to anti-Semitism and made them feel unsafe, and they point out that Hamas is still holding hostages taken during the group’s Oct. 7 invasion.
Tensions remained high Monday in Columbia, where campus gates were closed to anyone without a school ID and protests broke out both on and off campus.