Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), claims she has nowhere to live or eat after being suspended for participating in anti-Israel protests at Columbia University.
Hirsi was among the more than 100 protesters police took into custody during the anti-Israel protest on Thursday.
The 21-year-old has recently revealed to Teen Vogue that she has been evicted from campus housing and banned from the dining hall, leaving her without shelter and food.
“I was a little bit frantic, like, where am I going to sleep? Where am I going to go?” Hirsi said. “I don’t know when I can go home, and I don’t know if I ever will be able to.”
She also added that the administration at Barnard College has left her stranded when it comes to being able to get food.
“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 said. “There was no food support, no nothing.”
Speaking to Teen Vogue about her arrest, Hirsi said she was held in custody for roughly eight hours.
“We had so many people born female in our group that they didn’t have enough space for us,” Hirsi said. “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.”
Hirsi also complained to the outlet about Barnard’s president, Laura Rosenbury, who she believes overreacted.
“I think it’s really on a school-by-school basis, and Barnard has decided to take a very egregious stand against us,” Hirsi said.
According to Daily Mail, Hirsi hopes that the focus will be taken away from college campuses and return to the plight of people in Gaza.
“A lot of us are grateful that people are paying attention and noticing how severe our campus repression has been, but it has been a little bit frustrating to focus on Columbia over the focus of what is even happening in Gaza,” she said.
Rep. Ilhan Omar's daughter Isra Hirsi, 21, says she is now homeless and starving after being suspended from college over anti-Israel protests at Columbia University which saw her zip-tied for seven hours https://t.co/v212HQDMNr pic.twitter.com/rsedU8R3wM
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) April 22, 2024
Omar, on the other hand, praised her daughter in a post on social media following her arrest.
“I am enormously proud of my daughter. She has always led with courage and compassion, from organizing a statewide school walkout on the 20th anniversary of Columbine at the age of 15 to leading the biggest youth climate rally at our nation’s Capitol at 16 and now pushing her school to stand against genocide.”