On the night of Saturday, March 8, Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student at Columbia University in New York City, was arrested by plain-clothed ICE agents to be deported. Although a federal judge has since blocked Trump’s attempt to deport Khalil, he is currently in custody in an ICE detention facility in Jena, Louisiana. He graduated from a master’s degree program in December and had legal permanent resident status on a green card – one small step away from citizenship. His arrest leaves behind his wife in NYC who is eight months pregnant.
His crime?
The Department of Homeland Security alleges that he “led activities aligned with Hamas.” Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that, “Following my previously signed executive orders, ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a radical foreign pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University. This is the first arrest of many to come…”
This arrest is Trump following through on his promise in his January 29th executive order to revoke visas and kick out any “aliens” who are alleged to have engaged in “antisemitism.”
What is the reality?
The truth is that Khalil hasn’t even been charged with any crime.
Khalil is a Palestinian refugee born in Syria and a student who was heavily involved in the recent encampment protest at Columbia against the genocide in Gaza. He became a leader within the movement, being chosen to be to be on a negotiating team that met with the campus administration.
The claim that Khalil was a Hamas sympathizer or antisemitic is, of course, a total fiction. Neither the Trump administration nor the Department of Homeland Security has provided any evidence for this claim. In an interview during the campus protests, Khalil himself said, “There is, of course, no place for antisemitism.” And in another interview Khalil said, “…as a Palestinian student, I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand and you cannot achieve one without the other.”
But for the mainstream media and the right-wing, the strategy of calling supporters of Palestinian rights antisemites has been used consistently to deflect attention from the crimes committed by Israel’s Zionist policies.
Even if Khalil was actually a Hamas supporter, arresting and attempting to deport him would still remain an authoritarian attack on free speech. Any attacks on free speech by the state, even for those that we might find objectionable, undermine all of our rights.
Following Khalil’s arrest, the Trump administration canceled $400 million in federal grants to Columbia for “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” Now 59 other universities, including UC Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University, will face investigations from the Department of Education for supposedly not fulfilling their obligations to “…protect Jewish students on campus.”
These attacks on free speech are explained by the lie that to be anti-Zionist, or in any way critical of the State of Israel, is inherently antisemitic. Zionism rests on the false claim that it represents all Jewish people. In reality, many Jewish activists in the United States and around the world have played a disproportionate role in the struggle against Israel’s expansionist and genocidal policies.
The modern right-wing movement in the United States that has coalesced around Donald Trump has long postured as being champions of free speech against what they label excesses of so-called “political correctness,” “cancel culture” and “safe spaces.” This episode with Mahmoud Khalil, like many others, makes their level of sincerity about fighting for free speech crystal clear. They couldn’t care less.
Meanwhile, for all the Democrats’ talk about viewing Trump as a wannabe dictator who represents an existential threat to democratic rights, their response to the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil has been measured at best. While some have put out statements denouncing the arrest, most of the party leadership has either been silent or even denounced Khalil. It is worth keeping in mind that much of the repression by riot police being used against the pro-Palestinian protesters on campuses last year was conducted by Democratic politicians in largely Democratic cities. This repression has paved the way for the authoritarianism that we see Trump wielding against Khalil.
The whole point of all of the threats of arrests, deportations and cutting off of funding is to scare people into silence. The good news is that it hasn’t been entirely successful. On Monday, March 10, thousands of people have demonstrated in support of Khalil in New York. Police arrested 98 of them sitting-in inside Trump Tower. Smaller demonstrations have taken place elsewhere, and more are scheduled.
Mahmoud Khalil’s future and our future will not be decided in the courts, but in the streets.
You can show solidarity with Mahmoud Khalil by signing a petition demanding his release, contributing to his legal defense fund, and most importantly, by getting active wherever you are!
Hands Off Mahmoud Khalil!
Drop All The Charges against Khalil’s supporters!
Abolish ICE!
Free Palestine!
