Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and graduate student at Columbia University, was arrested Saturday. His student visa was revoked in March. He is detained at LaSalle Detention Center in Louisiana.
The Spectator student newspaper at Columbia published a lengthy piece on April 4 that Khalil dictated about his current situation. It has been paraphrased and edited for length here.
He said Columbia University “laid the groundwork for my abduction. … The logic used by the federal government to target myself and my peers is a direct extension of Columbia’s repression playbook concerning Palestine.”
He cited numerous emails from administrators “that manufactured public hysteria about antisemitism without once mentioning the tens of thousands of Palestinians murdered under bombs made of your dollars. Columbia has suppressed student dissent under the auspices of combating antisemitism.”
Khalil praised students who have stayed involved with the movement for Palestinian freedom that began a year ago. He also denied that the movement is antisemitic.
“Anyone who has truly engaged with the movement knows that claims that its goals and purpose are rooted in antisemitism are mere fabrication,” he said.
He pointed to “the students who publicize manufactured safety concerns regarding antisemitism” as the same ones who “turn our lives into targets. While they sit comfortably behind their screens, their actions have very real consequences for the rest of us.”
Khalil said he believes “some pro-Israel students were participating in the genocide as military personnel during their school breaks, only to return to campus and claim victimhood in the classroom. These students who have smeared and attacked us have also benefited from the mutual backing of this institution and the federal government.”
He continued: “To the students who remain apathetic to Columbia’s disregard for human life and its willingness to discard student safety: As pressure from the federal government intensifies, know that your neutrality on Palestine will not protect you. When the time comes for the federal government to target other causes, it will be your names that Columbia will offer on a silver platter, it will be your pleas that fall on deaf ears, it will be your just causes that are stonewalled.”
