Funeral attendees pledged allegiance to Hezbollah and chanted ‘Death to Israel, death to America’
Federal authorities found evidence Rasha Alawieh, an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University, attended Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral in Lebanon before deporting her on Friday.
Alawieh admitted to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents that she was present at the Beirut funeral, claiming she followed his teachings “from a religious perspective,” according to court documents the Justice Department filed Monday morning.
“CBP questioned Dr. Alawieh and determined that her true intentions in the United States could not be determined,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Sady wrote. “As such CBP canceled her visa and deemed Dr. Alawieh inadmissible to the United States.”
“Last month, Rasha Alawieh traveled to Beirut, Lebanon, to attend the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah—a brutal terrorist who led Hezbollah, responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over four decades. Alawieh openly admitted to this to CBP officers, as well as her support of Nasrallah,” the Department of Homeland Security added in a statement Monday afternoon. “A visa is a privilege not a right—glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied. This is commonsense security.”
The funeral Alawieh attended drew tens of thousands of mourners dressed in black. They filled the streets of Beirut chanting “Death to Israel, death to America” while pledging allegiance to Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist organization. Hezbollah initiated attacks on Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in support of its ally Hamas, which had carried out a brutal massacre of Israeli civilians the previous day. In retaliation for Hezbollah’s aggression, Israel invaded Lebanon and killed Nasrallah on Sept. 27, 2024.
Nasrallah’s funeral now:
“Death to America, Death to Israel,” pic.twitter.com/nrr2fnS1Hc
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) February 23, 2025
Alawieh also had “sympathetic photos and videos” of prominent Hezbollah figures in the deleted items folder of her cell phone, according to the court filings. Several major news outlets, including Axios and CNN, haven’t reported Alawieh’s attendance at Nasrallah’s funeral or mentioned the Hezbollah media on her phone.
Attorneys for Alawieh’s family withdrew Sunday, telling the court the decision was “a result of further diligence.”
Authorities detained Alawieh—an H-1B visa holder and 34-year-old Lebanese national—on Thursday at Logan International Airport in Boston after returning from her home country. During her interview with CBP officials, she acknowledged attending Nasrallah’s funeral the previous month, describing it as “a purely religious thing.” She emphasized Nasrallah’s significance, noting, “He’s a very big figure in our community. For me it’s not political.”
On Friday, Leo Sorokin, who has served as a judge for the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts since 2014 following his nomination by President Barack Obama, ordered Alawieh not be deported without advance notice to the court. By the time authorities received notice of Sorokin’s court order, however, Alawieh was already on a flight bound for Paris. She arrived in Lebanon on Sunday morning.
In response to Monday morning’s revelations, Sorokin postponed a hearing, granting the government an additional week to submit further information regarding the circumstances surrounding Alawieh’s deportation.
Alawieh began her assistant professorship at Brown’s division of nephrology in July 2024, with the Ivy League institution sponsoring her H-1B visa, according to a petition her cousin, Yara Chehab, filed on Friday. Alawieh first moved to the U.S. in 2018 when she was awarded a student visa to participate in a two-year nephrology fellowship at the Ohio State University. She then attended a similar program at the University of Washington before moving to an internal medicine program at Yale University, which she completed in June 2024.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman halted the immediate deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Hamas Columbia graduate student. The Trump administration revoked Khalil’s student visa and green card, but Furman’s intervention put a temporary stop to their efforts, ensuring Khalil remains in the United States as legal proceedings unfold. Furman is a prolific Democratic donor, having contributed over $20,000 to Democrats, including Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic National Committee. He also once threw out a terrorism lawsuit against the Palestine Liberation Organization.
