Zaid Mohammed Mahdawi of Richmond, Va., was arrested on Friday and charged with destroying federal property for allegedly spray-painting pro-Hamas graffiti on a monument near Washington’s Union Station.
The 26-year-old was captured in surveillance footage defacing the monument in Columbus Circle, near the train station, on July 24, the same day that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress, the Justice Department alleges.
Mahdawi, who was arrested in Richmond last December and again in April, is accused of writing “Hamas is coming,” along with an inverted red triangle—a symbol of the terror organization.
The National Park Service estimates that anti-Israel vandals caused $11,282.23 worth of damage to federal property, per the Justice Department.
“Politically motivated destruction or defacing of federal property is not protected speech. It is a crime,” stated Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
“Anyone engaged in such conduct in the District of Columbia should expect to get federally prosecuted,” Graves added. “Our community has zero tolerance for those who want to destroy or deface our monuments and other federal property.”
