Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian activist who has been in federal detention since his arrest in New York City on March 10, said he was targeted for his activism — and as part of the Trump administration’s “broader strategy to suppress dissent.”
In a letter dictated to progressive magazine In These Times from a Louisiana detention center where he is being held, Khalil said his arrest “was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night.”
The end of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, he said, has brought about all-too-familiar scenes of suffering in Gaza.
“It is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle for their complete freedom,” Khalil said, adding that he saw parallels between his circumstance and that of Palestinians held in administrative detention by Israel.
A legal U.S. permanent resident and Columbia University graduate student, Khalil was arrested by federal immigration officers at his apartment building in New York. Video of his arrest, which was filmed by his wife — who is eight months pregnant — and released by the American Civil Liberties Union, shows plainclothes officers with badges handcuffing Khalil and placing him in a car before driving away without answering questions from his wife about their names or which agency they represented.
Khalil’s arrest has alarmed civil rights advocates and sparked protests across the country. The Trump administration has claimed without evidence that Khalil and other Columbia protesters have supported Hamas and warned that more such arrests are imminent.
“This is not about free speech,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last Wednesday in comments to the press.
Khalil has not been charged with any crime or convicted of any terror-related activity. A federal court temporarily paused his deportation last week as his legal team has sought to remove him from detention in Louisiana. A judge Wednesday morning ordered Khalil’s case be transferred to New Jersey.
In his letter, Khalil said his detention was indicative of “the anti-Palestinian racism that both the Biden and Trump administrations have demonstrated over the past 16 months.” It has also driven the violent repression of Palestinians, Arabs and other communities in the U.S. for decades, he said. He called out Columbia University’s leadership and its recent moves to appease the Trump administration under threat of losing millions in federal funding: While I await legal decisions that hold the futures of my wife and child in the balance, those who enabled my targeting remain comfortably at Columbia University. Presidents Shafik, Armstrong, and Dean Yarhi-Milo laid the groundwork for the U.S. government to target me by arbitrarily disciplining pro-Palestinian students and allowing viral doxing — based on racism and disinformation—to go unchecked.
Columbia targeted me for my activism, creating a new authoritarian disciplinary office to bypass due process and silence students criticizing Israel. Columbia surrendered to federal pressure by disclosing student records to Congress and yielding to the Trump administration’s latest threats. Khalil suggested that the administration is seeking to make an example out of him to suppress dissent, warning that others will be targeted for their political beliefs, regardless of their immigration status or citizenship. “In the weeks ahead, students, advocates, and elected officials must unite to defend the right to protest for Palestine. At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all,” Khalil said. “Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances,” he added, “I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child.”
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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