A nineteen-year-old suspect has been arrested and charged with assaulting a 24-year-old Israeli Columbia University student in an attack that prosecutors have deemed a hate crime.
The Israeli student, whose name has not been publicly disclosed, was putting up posters of Israelis who have been taken hostage by Hamas. The perpetrator asked to join, and later, began ripping down the posters, shouting obscenities, and, when confronted, hit the victim with a wooden stick. The victim suffered minor injuries, including a laceration to the hand.
National Review previously reported that the NYPD identified the perpetrator as “a 19-year-old female” named “Maxwell Friedman.” The Columbia Spectator, a student publication at Columbia University, now reports that the perpetrator is a female named “Malaika Friedman.” Friedman reportedly was a Columbia University student and is no longer a student there.
“Fuck you. Fuck all you prick crackers. I disrespected you. What are you going to do about it. Do you want to talk about it like adults?” Friedman said, according to the Spectator, which reviewed the complaint. “If you have a problem, we can deal with it right now, fam. Pussies.”
Friedman was charged with assault in the second degree as a hate crime, assault in the third degree as a hate crime, aggravated harassment in the second degree, and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. Friedman pled not guilty.
Charging the offender with a hate crime raises the class of the felony and allows for a higher sentencing range.
“A hate crime is a crime that is motivated in whole or substantial part by bias against certain personal characteristics,” says the NYC Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. “If it’s determined that the crime was motivated by bias, then hate crime charges may be added to the original charge.”
Friedman is scheduled to appear in court on November 28, 2023.
Alexander Zhik, an associate attorney at Spodek Law Group who is representing Friedman, declined to comment.
The Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and Columbia Jewish Voice for Peace co-signed an open letter, dated October 9, calling on Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to “divest from Israeli apartheid, end the dual degree program with Tel Aviv University, and cancel the opening of the Tel Aviv Global Center.”
“Yesterday [October 8] was an unprecedented historic moment for the Palestinians of Gaza, who tore through the wall that has been suffocating them in one of the most densely-populated areas on Earth for the past 16 years – an open-air prison blockaded by Israeli soldiers via land, air, and sea,” reads the open letter. “Despite the odds against them, Palestinians launched a counter-offensive against their settler-colonial oppressor – which receives billions of US dollars annually in military aid and possesses one of the world’s most robust surveillance and security apparatuses.”
The two organizations published an article today in the Spectator arguing the university must intervene to prevent “Black, brown, and Muslim students from becoming targets of the increased violence and aggression taking place on campus.”
“On campus, affiliates have spat on Black and brown Muslim students, torn off Muslim women’s hijabs, labeled activists as ‘terrorists’ and ‘murderers,’ and advocated for peaceful protestors to ‘die,’” the article alleges. “These abhorrent attacks are rooted in Islamophobic and anti-Black rhetoric and make a disproportionate impact on visibly Muslim women.”
A Columbia University Irving Medical Center spokesperson condemned comments by a university employee that were circulated on the student-run radio station.
“I’m Jewish, okay? I’m a Zionist, okay? I hope every one of these people die,” the unidentified employee said in reference to a protest by the Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and Columbia Jewish Voice for Peace.
“Using words that incite dangerous behavior is clearly prohibited,” the spokesperson said in response. “While we will not comment on specific cases involving individual members of our community, we are committed to enforcing the rules and policies that are in place to ensure safety, civility and respect, a responsibility that we take extremely seriously.”
A joint statement from Columbia University student organizations, currently signed by 20 groups, suggests that the “whole world is SILENT while Palestinians live in an open air prison and continue to suffer as a result of the siege and wars applied by a series of fascist, racist, and colonial Israeli governments.”
“We also affirm that there can be no future of safety and freedom for all Israelis and Palestinians without holding the Israeli occupation accountable for its actions and putting an end to the untenable status quo of Israel’s apartheid and colonial system,” reads the joint statement.