Rep. Ilhan Omar's, D-Minn., daughter Isra Hirsi claimed over the weekend that she and fellow anti-Israel protesters faced "physical harm" from opponents spraying "chemical weapons" while protesting at Columbia University.
Columbia University has been engulfed in protests over Israel’s ongoing military operation in Gaza. Hirsi was suspended from Barnard College, one of Columbia’s undergraduate schools, and arrested by the NYPD for her participation in the anti-Israel protest on Columbia University’s campus. The NYPD claimed she was among more than 100 people issued a summons for trespassing.
Hirsi and a fellow protester appeared on Saturday's episode of MSNBC’s "Ayman Mohyeldin Reports," where she was asked if student activists like herself are being targeted because of their "solidarity with Palestinians."
Hirsi argued anti-Israel protesters are "100% targeted."
"Every single protest that we have, there’s a group of counter professors that bring all of their items, their flags, things like that, and they’re not seen as having unsanctioned protest or really receive the kind of disciplinary warnings that many of our fellow organizers received just for being seen at these protests, and so there is definitely some hypocrisy here," she said.
She argued that such hypocrisy is especially salient considering counter-protesters used what she called "chemical weapons."
"You can kind of see it with the students that were, sprayed us with the chemical weapons, and the fact that there’s no public information as to what happened to them, but rather, the university is actively discussing what is happening to the [Anti-Israel] students here and making it a whole public spectacle rather than, when we haven’t done anything to physically harm students, whereas those that sprayed those chemical weapons physically harm students," she said.
As for the chemical weapon claim, Hirsi was most likely referring to an incident involving "fart spray." A Columbia University student who served in the Israeli armed forces is suing the school after he was suspended for using the noxious spray during an anti-Israel protest. The student is also accusing the school of selectively enforcing its policies to protect students.
"As a harmless expression of his speech, he sprayed into the air a novelty, non-toxic 'fart' spray named ‘Liquid A--’ and ‘Wet Farts’ which he purchased on Amazon for $26.11," the lawsuit states. "Almost instantly, the University rushed to silence Plaintiff, placed him on interim suspension from the University, and published a statement to the University community which accused Plaintiff of a hate crime and placed Plaintiff’s safety in grave jeopardy."
When the student sought help from the school after receiving antisemitic and death threats, Columbia remained silent, the lawsuit said.
During a congressional hearing last week, Omar herself brought up the incident, claiming that students were "attacked with a toxic chemical substance, leaving many hospitalized."
The protests have led to other physical altercations at the university.
Yoseph Haddad, an Arab-Israeli journalist, Israel Defense Forces veteran and activist who is not Jewish himself, claimed he was both shoved and then punched in the face after he asked protesters how they could "literally support terrorism."
This does not appear to be an isolated incident, as other violent anti-Israeli assaults have taken place at America’s elite universities as well. Sahar Tartak, editor-in-chief of the Yale Free Press, claimed she was singled out for covering the protest at Yale while being "identifiably Jewish." After she was separated from a friend she was with and then surrounded by protesters, she claimed, "One of the students, whose face was covered in a keffiyeh, took a Palestinian flag that he was holding, waved it in my face and hit my left eye."
Business professor Shai Davidai recently responded to Columbia's protests by telling Fox News Digital, "[Saturday], what we saw is that the pro-terrorist student organizations have crossed the line to being an actual terror organization."
The breaking point, he argued, was video footage where an anti-Israel demonstrator was seen holding a sign reading, "Al-Qasam’s (sic) next targets," while pointing at a group of Jewish students who were singing and waving Israel’s flag. Al-Qassam is the military wing of the terrorist organization Hamas.
Davidai said Monday his keycard had been deactivated and he was blocked from entering the main campus.
