AOC, Rashida Tlaib call out arrest of ‘Squad’ member Ilhan Omar’s daughter at Columbia anti-Israel protest
Lefty reps Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib have called out the arrest of fellow ‘Squad’ member Ilhan Omar’s daughter during Columbia University’s disruptive anti-Israel protest, griping the crackdown was “appalling.”
The two progressive members of Congress chimed in after scores of students were cuffed and hauled away from the Ivy League campus on Thursday after the NYPD were brought in to clear out the large tent encampment.
“What is going on here @BarnardCollege @Columbia? How does a student with no disciplinary record suddenly get to a suspension less than 24 hours after a nonviolent protest?” Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tweeted alongside a post from Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi, detailing her suspension.
“What merits asymmetric crackdowns on Palestinian human rights protests?”
Rep. Tlaib (D-Mich.), too, weighed in on the response, tweeting, “From UM to Vanderbilt to USC to Columbia, students across our country are being retaliated against for using their constitutional rights to protest genocide. It’s appalling.”
Omar, meanwhile, hasn’t publicly addressed her daughter’s arrest.
Hirsi, a Barnard College junior, was among the 108 protestors nabbed after Columbia President Minouche Shafik “authorized” the NYPD to move in and clear out the tent city encampment on the Ivy League’s Morningside campus.
She was slapped with trespassing summonses and a suspension from the Columbia-affiliated Barnard College.
Footage taken by The Post showed the moment NYPD officers clad in riot helmets cuffed Hirsi and then led her into an NYC Corrections bus.
She was later cut loose from jail around 9 p.m. Thursday, but refused to comment to The Post about her arrest.
Hours earlier, Hirsi had taken to X to reveal she and two other members of the anti-Israel student group, Apartheid Divest, had been suspended from Barnard — where tuitions costs $64,000 per year — over their involvement in the protests.
“I just received notice that I am 1 of 3 students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide,” she tweeted.
“I’m an organizer with CU Apartheid Divest @ColumbiaSJP, in my 3 years at @BarnardCollege I have never been reprimanded or received any disciplinary warnings.”
Administration at Barnard said students started receiving warnings late Wednesday that they risked being suspended if they didn’t leave the encampment.
The suspensions started being doled out first thing Thursday morning, according to a statement posted on the college’s site.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many Barnard students had been slapped with sanctions so far.
A spokesperson at the Columbia-affiliated college told The Post it “does not provide information about confidential student conduct proceedings.”
