Suspect arrested for allegedly throwing rock at Jewish Columbia student
Police arrested Ossining, New York resident Zuhdi Ahmed on June 13 following his involvement with a protest at Columbia University in Manhattan on April 20.
Ahmed is said to have thrown thrown a rock at sophomore Jonathan Lederer and hit him in the face.
An anti-Israel activist is facing hate crime charges after a recent violent altercation with a Jewish student.
Police arrested Ossining, New York resident Zuhdi Ahmed on June 13 following his involvement with a protest at Columbia University in Manhattan on April 20, during which he is said to have thrown a rock at sophomore Jonathan Lederer and hit him in the face.
Lederer, a computer science student, wrote in an April 21 article for The Free Press that he and other students had gathered for an hour-long demonstration during which they sang songs calling for peace.
Lederer wrote that as he and his classmates were singing, “[m]asked keffiyeh-wearers came to us face-to-face, trying to intimidate us. They chanted, ‘F*** Israel, Israel’s a b****!’ We were told, ‘You guys are all inbred.’ They threw water in our faces. These groups are not fairly described as ‘pro-Palestine.’ They are active supporters of Hamas and they say so explicitly: ‘We say justice, you say how? Burn Tel Aviv to the ground,’ one group chanted by the gates of my school. ‘Hamas, we love you. We support your rockets, too.’”
Continuing the story, Lederer wrote that the keffiyeh-wearing individuals began chasing him and other pro-Israel protesters, but as he attempted to flee the scene, he discovered that the exits were blocked.
“As it so happened, Within Our Lifetime—a group openly committed to the destruction of Israel—was leading a mass protest blocking the gate. On our way out, a keffiyeh-wearing protester began berating my brother and me,” Lederer wrote.
According to Lederer, another protester then snuck up behind him and stole two Israeli flags he was holding and subsequently burned them. The suspect, James Carlson, was subsequently arrested and charged with criminal mischief, among other charges, as reported by PIX11 .
“At least two solid objects were thrown at me from close range, one of which hit me directly in the face and the other in the chest,” Lederman continued. “Finally, I succeeded in grabbing my flags and ran to rejoin my friends. We ended up being chased out of campus and told to ‘go back to Poland,’ a poignant reminder that even in America, antisemites wish to condemn Jews like me to our ancestors’ tragic fate.”
According to one rabbi at Columbia, “Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy.”
Campus Reform has reached out to Columbia University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.