NEW YORK, Mar 20, (APP/DNA):Pro-Palestinian Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil has called himself a ‘political prisoner’ while urging students to respond with even more protests, according to US media reports.
“My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner, Khalil said in a fiery letter written from his immigration detention facility in US state of Louisiana. 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.”
He accused Columbia University’s leaders of having laid the groundwork for the US government to target me by arbitrarily disciplining pro-Palestinian students and allowing viral doxing campaigns — based on racism and disinformation — to go unchecked.”
If anything, my detention is a testament to the strength of the student movement in shifting public opinion toward Palestinian liberation,” he wrote.
“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, 30, a permanent US resident, is being detained in Louisiana despite his lawyer’s petition to have him returned to New York where his eight-month-pregnant wife, who is an American citizen, lives.
He was arrested on March 8 by ICE and is facing deportation for leading activities the Trump administration claimed were ‘aligned to Hamas’.
Detailing his arrest, Khalil claimed he and his wife were ‘accosted’ on their way home from dinner by US agents “who refused to provide a warrant”, he wrote.
“Before I knew what was happening, agents handcuffed me and forced me into an unmarked car”, he said.
Protest in Times Square for Columbia Grad student and activist Mahmoud Khalil with a diverse crowd holding signs
Khalil said he spent a night in New York before being transferred to a detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and then taken to Louisiana.
President Donald Trump accused students of participating in “pro-terrorist, antisemitic, anti-American activity”.Shortly before Khalil’s arrest, the Trump administration froze $400 million in grants to the Morningside Heights school over what was called “campus antisemitism”.
Columbia responded last week by expelling and suspending many students, with the White House defending the move.
:Pro-Palestinian Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil has called himself a 'political prisoner' while){kind=link}