The daughter of Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar surprisingly claimed that she is homeless and unable to get food after being kicked out of her upscale $90,000-per-year Barnard College dormitory following her arrest last week during anti-Israel demonstrations at Columbia University.
Isra Hirsi, 21, and a few other Barnard students were suspended after they were part of over 100 protestors arrested and removed for refusing to vacate a tent encampment on Columbia University’s campus last Thursday. Hirsi, along with junior Soph Askanase and freshman Maryam Iqbal were suspended. He has revealed that she has been ousted from campus housing and banned from the dining hall, leaving her without shelter and food.
No Access to Food and Shelter
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“I was feeling a bit frantic, like, where am I going to sleep? Where am I gonna go?” she told Teen Vogue after learning that she had been removed from campus housing and denied access to the dining hall.
“And all of my stuff is just thrown in some random lot. It’s pretty horrible,” lamented the disgraced student, still receiving support from her Democratic “squad” member mother, who said she is “enormously proud” of her daughter.
“I have like four shirts, two pairs of pants,” Hirsi complained. “I don’t know when I can go home, and I don’t know if I ever will be able to.”
Hirsi, a member of the anti-Israel student group Apartheid Divest, had been notified of her suspension early Thursday, preceding the involvement of the NYPD to arrest protestors and dismantle the anti-Israel protest encampment.
Barnard administrators had begun issuing warnings to students late Wednesday, indicating that they risked being suspended if they did not vacate the area.
Nowhere to Live
Hirsi said she sought help from the Barnard administration upon release from jail on Thursday but claimed that her pleas fell on deaf ears. “I sent them an email like, ‘Hey, I rely on campus for my meals, I rely on my dining plan,’ and they were like, Oh, you can come pick up a prepackaged bag of food, a full 48 hours after I was suspended,” she told the magazine.
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“There was no food support, no nothing.”
Hirsi appeared distressed as she was handcuffed alongside numerous other pro-Palestine protesters participating in the sit-in. They were issued summonses for trespassing.
She described being taken to 1 Police Plaza in Manhattan, where she remained for roughly hours.
“We had so many people who were born female in our group that they didn’t have enough space for us,” Hirsi told Teen Vogue of her arrest. “It was a very slow process in getting everybody into the cells.
“I was zip-tied for about seven hours and wasn’t released for about eight,” she added.
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She also expressed frustration that Barnard’s president, Laura Rosenbury, appeared to be adopting a stricter approach toward students compared to Columbia University.
“Only Barnard students are evicted, and I think it’s pretty crazy,” Hirsi griped.
“I think it’s really on a school-by-school basis, and Barnard has decided to take a very egregious stand against us,” she added.
