A gun shop owner told Vermont police that the anti-Israel Columbia student told him he built guns “to kill Jews while he was in Palestine,” per the filing.
(May 1, 2025 / JNS) Anti-Israel activist Mohsen Mahdawi, who was released from federal custody on Wednesday per a ruling of the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, allegedly told a Vermont gun shop owner in 2015 that he used to build weapons in Judea and Samaria to kill Jews, per a court filing.
Over two visits to the gun shop, Mahdawi, who led anti-Israel protests at Columbia University in 2024, told the owner that he wanted to learn more about firearms and to buy a sniper rifle and an automatic weapon, according to the owner.
The shop owner, who contacted the police about the visits, said that Mahdawi told him that he “had considerable firearm experience and used to build modified 9mm submachine guns to kill Jews while he was in Palestine,” per court documents.
The shop owner also informed police that he had heard from a frequent customer that Mahdawi had made other troubling comments. Mahdawi told the customer, during a visit to a museum in Windsor, “I like to kill Jews,” the customer told the owner.
According to court documents, FBI agents questioned Mahdawi in November 2015 about the incident, and the bureau subsequently closed the investigation.