Teen who attacked Columbia student over Israeli war hit with hate crime charges
NEW YORK — Hate crime charges have been filed against the teen who attacked an Israeli Columbia University student during an argument linked to the ongoing Israeli war, Manhattan prosecutors said Saturday.
Maxwell Friedman, who uses she/her pronouns, was charged with assault in the second and third degrees as a hate crime, as well as harassment and weapons possession for the Wednesday evening attack outside a Columbia University residential hall on W. 116th St. near the Butler Library.
Friedman’s victim, 24, was putting up fliers regarding the number of causalities in Israel and a photograph of a family kidnapped by Hamas in a spot for campus new bulletins when Friedman, 19, began tearing the fliers down.
The victim and several others confronted Friedman about her actions, sparking an argument, the college newspaper, The Daily Spectator, reported.
“F— you! F— all of you prick crackers!” Friedman screamed at her victim and his friends. “I disrespected you. What are you going to do about it? Do you want to talk about it like adults? If you have a problem, we can deal with it right now.”
Before Friedman began tearing the flyers down, she had met up with her victim and his friends, claimed she was Jewish, and offered to help, the Spectator reported.
Friedman, who had a bandanna covering her face, struck the Israeli student with a broomstick handle, cutting and fracturing the Israeli student’s fingers.
Cops arrested Friedman Wednesday night. She was granted supervised release during a brief arraignment hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court late Thursday and sent home and is expected to answer the charges in court next month.
Several hundred students on both sides of the war between Israel and Palestinians filled the lawns of Columbia University on Thursday night as the violence in the Middle East continued.
