The first pro-Palestinian college protest organizer detained by the Trump administration spoke to a crowd in New York City on Sunday, saying that he would not be silenced and chanting “free Palestine” following his release on bail Friday.
Mahmoud Khalil played a leading role in Columbia University’s protests against Israel, which erupted after Hamas attacked the country on Oct. 7, 2023, and protests in support of Gaza and the Palestinian people broke out on U.S. college campuses.
Khalil is a green card holder married to a U.S. citizen, and the couple had their first child while he was detained for more than 100 days. He was released Friday from a Jena, Louisiana, immigration detention center after authorities determined he was not a flight risk.
His latest speech seemed to confirm that Khalil has no intentions of fleeing the United States.
“Well, who is Mahmoud Khalil?” Khalil said
to a crowd in New York City
. “That’s what the administration has tried its best to portray me as someone who’s violent. Mahmoud Khalil is a human rights defender. Mahmoud Khalil is a freedom fighter. Mahmoud Khalil is a refugee. Mahmoud Khalil is a father and husband. And above all, Mahmoud Khalil is Palestinian.”
“The wave of repression that the Trump administration initiated with my detention was intended to silence the movement for Palestinian liberation,” he said. “It was intended to scare people into silence. It was intended to distract us from the fact that the U.S. government is a killing machine in Palestine and across the world. But they completely failed. Millions of people spoke up even louder, that it is our responsibility to end this genocide, no matter the personal cost. And that’s exactly what I will continue trying to do as long as I’m able, so long as I am breathing.”
He added that the protests are a start to a “longer fight towards justice.”
Khalil’s arrest was a result of President Donald Trump’s promise to take “Forceful and Unprecedented Steps to Combat Anti-Semitism” in a
fact sheet
the White House published soon after he entered office.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act to justify Khalil’s arrest, arguing that anyone who advocated for a designated terrorist organization was subject to deportation. Hamas has been considered a foreign terrorist organization in the U.S. since 1997.
Following his release, the Department of Homeland Security spoke
out against it on social media
.
“An immigration judge, not a district judge, has the authority to decide if Mr. Khalil should be released or detained. On the same day an immigration judge denied Khalil bond and ordered him removed, one rogue district judge ordered him released. This is yet another example of how out of control members of the judicial branch are undermining national security. Their conduct not only denies the result of the 2024 election, it also does great harm to our constitutional system by undermining public confidence in the courts,” the post said.
“It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America. The Trump Administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detain Khalil, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews, and damages property. An immigration judge has already vindicated this position. We expect a higher court to do the same.”
But
The New York Times
claimed that all allegations citing Khalil as pro-Hamas “have not been substantiated in court,” and in an interview with one of its journalists, Khalil likened his arrest to a “kidnapping.”
Khalil also argued that speaking out against Israel isn’t antisemitic.
“I was not doing anything antisemitic,” he told the Times. “I was literally advocating for the right of my people. I was literally advocating for an end of a genocide. I was advocating that the tuition fees that I and other students pay don’t go toward investing in weapons manufacturers. What’s antisemitic about this?”
However, some believe Khalil’s actions at Columbia University caused Jewish students to feel unsafe on campus.
Conservative CNN contributor Scott Jennings
previously sided
with the Trump administration, noting that “Antisemitism is a scourge on the country,” and that there was validity in deporting Khalil.
Recent reports
show that antisemitism has increased in the United States since the Israel-Hamas war began and that many Jewish people have changed their outlook because of it. The American Jewish Committee found that antisemitic incidents have occurred more in the last year, since Oct. 7, than at any other time in the last 45 years, especially in younger Americans.
The White House is appealing Khalil’s release to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
