Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist who was arrested in March by immigration authorities, spoke out about his “abduction” in a Friday opinion piece.
Khalil, a former lead negotiator for Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian encampment, said in his Columbia Daily Spectator opinion piece that the school “laid the groundwork for my abduction” and pushed for the school’s students to “not abdicate their responsibility to resist repression.”
“Since my abduction on March 8, the intimidation and kidnapping of international students who stand for Palestine has only accelerated,” Khalil wrote in the piece.
The Trump administration has accused Khalil, who was recently detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), of being “pro-Hamas” and taking part in “pro-terrorist,” antisemitic activity, with the administration attempting to revoke the activist’s green card over the allegations.
Khalil’s opinion piece came as the Trump administration has further cracked down on international students, seeking to detain and deport those who took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters last week that more than 300 student visas have been revoked.
"We do it every day," he said. "Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa.”
“If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason you are coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we are not going to give you a visa,” Rubio said.
"The logic used by the federal government to target myself and my peers is a direct extension of Columbia's repression playbook concerning Palestine," Khalil said in his opinion piece. "In the 18 months since the genocidal campaign in Gaza began, Columbia has not only refused to acknowledge the lives of Palestinians sacrificed for Zionist settler colonialism, but it has actively reproduced the language used to justify this killing."
Khalil later argued that Columbia's "singular concern has always been the vitality of its financial profile, not the safety of Jewish students."
"This is why Columbia was all too happy to embrace a superficial progressive agenda while still disregarding Palestine, and this is why it will soon turn on you, too," he added, writing to Columbia students he labeled as "apathetic to Columbia's disregard for human life and its willingness to discard student safety."
The Hill has reached out to Columbia, the White House, the New York City Police ...
