A 20-year-old Westchester County man, Zuhdi Ahmed, was arrested on Thursday for his alleged involvement in a hate crime against a Jewish Columbia University student, Jonathan Lederer, during a campus protest in April. According to authorities, Ahmed was part of a group that confronted Lederer, 22, on April 20, ripping away his Israeli flag and throwing a rock at his face. The incident occurred at Amsterdam Avenue and West 116th Street, and Ahmed allegedly screamed at Lederer and flipped him the bird before a third person set the flag on fire. Lederer, who was wearing a yarmulke, suffered minor injuries but refused medical attention. He wrote about the incident in an article for The Free Press, describing how he and his friends were singing songs calling for peace before the violence erupted. Ahmed, a student at Hunter College, was charged with multiple counts, including assault and menacing as hate crimes, aggravated harassment, criminal possession of a weapon, and harassment. He was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday and is due back in court on August 6. One of the other accused attackers, James Carlson, 41, was arrested in May and charged with criminal mischief, arson, and criminal possession of stolen property. A third suspect remains at large. The incident occurred during massive campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, and Lederer described how he and his friends were confronted by “masked keffiyeh-wearers” who tried to intimidate them. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)