Mamdani-backed Dem led radical anti-Israel group that demanded total eradication of Western civilization

Mamdani-backed socialist Dem Darializa Avila Chevalier, the likely next congresswoman from New York’s 13th District, was part of the 2024 campus takeover at Columbia University and a key player in a radical anti-Israel group that once declared it was “fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization.”Chevalier, 32, who joined Students for Justice in Palestine in 2014 after a summer internship in the West Bank city of Nablus, co-founded Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a campaign aimed at coercing the Ivy League school to cut financial ties with Israel.CUAD led the charge in the disruptive tent encampment protests that took over the school’s Morningside Heights campus in 2024.She told the Associated Press at the time that they were “beautiful,” wearing a keffiyeh scarf draped over a t-shirt bearing the name of the group, which was permanently barred from campus after the takeover.“I’ve done a lot of community organizing, but when students were asking for support, I’m still connected with the alumni network so I’m very happy to support anytime they need me,” the Columbia alumna told a reporter.She talked up the organization of the encampment, which stretched for weeks in the spring of 2024 before police finally stormed the campus and arrested members of a pro-terror mob.“They really are prioritizing one another’s safety, ensuring all of their needs are met in terms of health and security and protecting one another from doxxing and all of those worries,” she said.“On days like today where it’s very hot you see students walking around with electrolytes and water, and then in the evening when it starts to cool down, hand warmers, blankets, things of that nature.

It’s been just a really beautiful thing to see.”The protests resulted in numerous injuries, damage to campus buildings and created a climate of fear among Jewish students and faculty.More than 70 students were hit with lengthy suspensions in the wake of ...