DSA candidate’s student group fundraises for Pennsylvania ‘Hamas operative’ charged with attacking Jewish property

An activist group tied to Democratic House nominee Darializa Avila Chevalier is planning to fundraise for an alleged Hamas supporter’s defense against federal charges.Columbia University Students for Justice in Palestine is hosting a local fair in October, with proceeds going to Mohamad Hamad, who is accused of helping attack Jewish sites in Pennsylvania, fraudulently seeking a government security clearance, possessing bombs, and criminal conspiracy. Avila Chevalier, a socialist candidate for New York’s November elections, was involved with the SJP chapter as a Columbia student before and after her 2016 graduation, according to multiple reports. She cofounded an SJP offshoot group called Columbia University Apartheid Divest in 2016 and participated in the unlawful 2024 university encampment protest that involved both groups.“Visit us on the north end of Morningside Park from 12-4pm to find handmade products, crafts, food, clothes, and much more!” says a Columbia SJP Instagram post about the upcoming event. “All proceeds will be split between the [humanitarian group] Sameer Project and the @freemohamad legal fund supporting Mohamad Hamad! See you all there!” The Department of Justice alleges defendant Mohamad Hamad sent this photo in July 2024 to an associate. (Image credit: Department of Justice) Avila Chevalier’s campaign did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment. She is one of multiple New York candidates recently backed by Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America against more moderate Democrats, running in the state’s 13th District. The nominee’s pro-Palestinian activism took off at Columbia after she returned from a 2014 internship in the West Bank that took her to a Hamas-linked school, the Washington Examiner previously reported.Who Columbia SJP is supporting In multiple indictments since his 2024 arrest, prosecutors accused Hamad and a codefendant of vandalizing a synagogue and Jewish nonprofit group around Pittsburgh and preparing bombs with a third codefendant. The dual Lebanese-American citizen is also charged with lying to a U.S. military contractor while asking for a top-secret security clearance, with the Department of Justice alleging he called himself loyal to the U.S. despite privately telling comrades he was more loyal to Lebanon and Palestinians.Hamad called himself a “Hamas operative” and discussed his enjoyment of wearing the terrorist group’s green headband in private messages, the DOJ alleges. Activists such as Avila Chevalier’s old SJP chapter portray Hamad as a political prisoner.The defendant called the case “unjust” in a statement released on an online fundraiser by a family member. “All of this was done for what? All the warrants for this was signed on the basis of a whole giant scheme that was going on with supposedly real serious charges, which after everything was said and done, was shown not to exist,” he said.A DOJ superseding indictment describes Mohamad Amad allegedly calling himself a terrorist. (Image credit: Department of Justice) DSA CANDIDATE INTERNED AT HAMAS ‘GREENHOUSE’ SCHOOL INFAMOUS FOR TERRORIST RECRUITMENTA judge replaced Hamad’s public defender attorney with one from the Pittsburgh firm Orie & Zivic in November 2025, noting he “is financially unable to employ counsel,” court records show. The law firm did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.The court initially gave Hamad pretrial release in 2024 while barring him from using encrypted chat platforms or viewing pro-terrorist content. A May 2025 court order put him back behind bars, citing evidence of “support of Hamas,” “[allegiance] to foreign terrorist goals,” and “evidence that defendant referred to himself as a terrorist and a Hamas operative.”“Been a terrorist since I was a kid in Lebanon, real shit,” Hamad allegedly told a codefendant in a June 2024 message.