On Jul 16, 2026, at 11:15 AM, david@ wrote:

For your information, I have asked that the rebuttal be circulated to the Beth Jacob Synagogue mailing list following your dismissal of detailed investigative work without identifying any factual errors, evidential flaws or translation mistakes

 David Collier here.

It has come to my attention that the credibility of my research on Mohsen Mahdawi was recently called into question in relation to an upcoming fundraiser for this man, who I’ve exposed as having terrorist ties and sympathies.

I am an investigative journalist who has spent well over a decade fighting rising antisemitism across the political spectrum.

I do not want the central point to become lost, so before going into detail, I want to ask one very simple question:

Before deciding publicly to support Mohsen Mahdawi – and to help raise money for him – have the decision makers at Beth Jacob all sat down and watched the entire speech he delivered in Arabic in 2024?

Because that is the key issue.

 The dismissal of my investigation

Before addressing Mahdawi himself, let me respond briefly to those who casually dismissed my work.

I understand that the author of the criticism, Eric Jacobson, is also listed as a speaker at the event supporting Mr. Mahdawi at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Montpelier. He is therefore not an impartial observer.

I have spent more than a decade investigating antisemitism and extremism. My work has been cited by parliamentarians, covered widely in the media and submitted to parliamentary inquiries. In the United States, I was named to The Algemeiner’s J100 list of people positively influencing Jewish life and received CAMERA’s Portrait of Courage Award. I have also recently addressed Jewish communities in speaking tours across Florida, New York and Boston.

I mention this only because Eric Jacobson chose to make my credibility part of the discussion. None of it determines whether my findings are true.

The evidence concerning Mr. Mahdawi must stand or fall on its own merits.

“I have never heard of him” is not a rebuttal.

Mr. Jacobson’s only other substantive comment was that he “wondered” about my Arabic. If the translation is wrong, identify the error. If the transcript is misleading, point to the relevant passage.

If Mohsen Mahdawi did not describe himself as belonging to a resistance movement that included armed resistance in Gaza and the West Bank, then explain what he actually said.

My meticulously researched work appears to have been ideologically dismissed by an invested participant who did not want to examine whether Mr. Mahdawi had actually said and done the things documented in the investigation, or even do a simple Google search of my name.

The unchallenged evidence concerning Mohsen Mahdawi

I conducted the original investigation into Mr. Mahdawi alongside Vermont’s own Rachel Feldman in 2025. More than a year later, no critic has demonstrated that its central factual findings were fabricated, misquoted or materially false.

Our research highlighted numerous distortions in Mahdawi’s personal narrative, a history of alignment with terrorists, and a pattern of presenting armed family members connected to terrorist factions as innocent civilians killed by Israel.

It is also a fact that Mahdawi published a video in Arabic to a restricted audience. It contained a message he presumably believed people such as the members of Beth Jacob would never see.

I uploaded the video unedited and in full on YouTube.

Its message is clear. At a time when President Biden was attempting to help the Palestinian Authority retain control of places such as Jenin, which had been overrun by armed terrorist groups, Mahdawi came down firmly on the side of the fighters. He placed himself alongside them as part of a united Palestinian resistance front.

During the speech, he invoked leaders associated with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The broad themes are unmistakable.

Is Jacobson claiming that Mahdawi did not say:

“Whether it is armed resistance in the West Bank and Gaza, or the popular resistance that we started…”

Is he claiming that Mahdawi did not invoke:

• Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas;
• Fathi Shiqaqi, the founder of Palestinian Islamic Jihad;
• Abu Ali Mustafa, the former leader of the PFLP?

Is he claiming that Mahdawi did not call for reconciliation with Hamas?

Is he claiming that Mahdawi did not describe the refugee camps – and the armed fighters inside – as the heart of the resistance?

These are straightforward factual questions. They cannot be answered by saying that Eric Jacobson had never heard of me or by vaguely “wondering” whether my Arabic was good enough.

I am not asking the congregation merely to listen to my voice. I am not asking you to accept my reliability on trust; a simple online search will allow you to examine my record for yourselves.

I am asking you to listen to what Mohsen Mahdawi himself said.

And I am asking you to understand that a Jewish congregation should stay as far away as possible from the politics he expressed.

Please DO NOT ATTEND the event.

David Collier