On Wednesday, a group of Jewish Columbia University students chained themselves at the St. Paul’s Chapel gates on the campus grounds to protest the arrest of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khali.
The Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition wrote on X, “We won’t leave until we get our demands met. Mahmoud Khalil must be freed. Free Palestine. @JVPColumbia.”
Students demanded that the university reveal the names of trustees who “gave Mahmoud’s Khalil to ICE,” referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Which one of them gave the names of students to ICE?” One of the chained students said, “That was our one demand from them. We will stay here until they comply with our demand.”
Another protester stated: “As Jewish Students, we learned about the rise in fascism and how important it was to speak out when injustices were seen around the world.”
Khalil was detained in March in his New York home. He was then transferred to a New Jersey detention facility before being taken to an ICE facility located in Jena, Louisiana. He is accused of taking part in violent anti-Israel demonstrations at Columbia University and spreading anti-Israel propaganda.
Khalil is 30 years old and married to an American citizen who is 8 months pregnant. Khalil has not been charged with a crime by the Trump administration, but he is accused of having distributed pro-Hamas material on the Columbia campus.
Khalil’s arrest can be seen as a declaration by the White House that it will no longer tolerate the public support of terrorist organizations. The Trump Administration has pledged to expel any other activists who engage in anti-American, antisemitic, and pro-terrorist activity. You are not welcome at Columbia if you support terrorism and the killing of innocent men, women, and children.
According to a spokesperson from Columbia University, the protesters had been chained up for about two hours before the campus police removed them.
