Forum

We uncovered 15 years of previously unseen evidence - and it tells a very different story.

Today we publish our report. This is just some of what we found.

Thread ⬇️ ⬇️⬇️ 

Along with @raychfeldman, I went digging through years of archive material and social media posts.

Let us start long before he came to the U.S.

It is 2010 - his patience is wearing thin - and he promises that "soon, very soon, we will annihilate the Jews"

There are plenty of posts from this period that glorify violence - but this footage from 2013 is still exceptional.

In a TV interview, Mahdawi suggests that if Palestinians “think a little”, they will see they have “the capacity and conviction to resist, to kill and to wound.” 

An image of its time. Posted by his cousin to Mahdawi's timeline, with Mahdawi tagged in the image. A blurry photograph of a man holding a Kalashnikov who looks remarkably like Mahdawi.

Can we be 100% certain it is him? No. But take a look.

Mahdawi is now on U.S soil, but that does not stop him. Mahdawi explicitly praises the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad - calling them lions and describing those pursuing resistance abroad as “mere dwarves.”

Mahdawi tells the story of an uncle who inspired him toward education. But before that story appeared for a U.S. audience, Mahdawi described him differently in Arabic - as the man who taught him nationalism, to arm himself with "faith as with a rifle”, and “the first bullets.”

The glorification of terrorists continued. In 2018, Mahdawi cursed and threatened Palestinian security forces. Their offence? Helping Israel capture a Hamas terrorist who had murdered a rabbi.

Mahdawi branded them “traitors.”

Throughout this period, Mahdawi continued to praise numerous terrorists who were killed.

In 2021 he honours Fadi Washaha - a terrorist with a long history of armed violence involving guns, grenades and attacks at “zero distance.”

Mahdawi called him his “brother in struggle.”

Mahdawi founded and led the Columbia University protests, standing alongside those calling for an intifada. He even spoke alongside Nerdeen Kiswani at a Within Our Lifetime event.

Here he speaks to the crowd directly in front of a banner declaring “BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.”

Mahdawi claims he stepped back from the movement - but his social media posts in October 2024 were still offering full support for the Columbia protests. He also says he withdrew before the encampment. But here he is inside it.

It gets worse. December 2024 - a decade after Mahdawi moved to America.

HHe posts a video in Arabic and describes “armed resistance in the West Bank or Gaza” alongside the overseas “popular resistance” that “we began and are still engaged in.”

 

 

 

Even after the arrest it continued. 2026: Mahdawi had left a Facebook group he created that glorified Palestinian terrorists. In 2026, he chose to rejoin it - reassociating himself with the group and becoming an administrator once again.

Then there is Mahdawi's family. He posted on instagram about how their lives were "stolen" - but when we traced them - we found the image was very different. Each of them were tied to armed resistance.

Finally, the story at the heart of Mahdawi’s transformation. He says his best friend was shot dead in front of him as a child - and he held his blood-soaked body - and his uncle then spoke by his graveside. Our investigation shows chronology makes his account impossible. 

This is only some of what we found - there is far too much to document in a thread.

The full investigation, with the evidence and sources, is in our report.

Read the introductory article and download the report here: ⬇️