Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestin student who drove anti-Israel protest; Columbia Journalism School reacts

Last update:March 15, 2025, 20:11 Ist

Donald Trump has promised to let go of students who were involved in “pro-Hamas protests” on university campuses in the United States.

Pro-Palestine Mahmoud Khalil student arrested in US (AP image)

A graduate of the University of Colombia and Palestinian activist, Mahmoud Khalil, was arrested last week for his role in protests against Israel on Campus, attracting criticism from the main educational institution.

Khalil, a recent graduate of the Public and International Business School in Colombia, was arrested on Saturday evening in his apartment owned by the university agents and customs application (ICE), according to his lawyer, Amy Greer.

Why was Mahmoud Khalil arrested?

Greer was told by ICE agents at a phone call that he executes orders by the State Department to revoke Khalil’s students. While she said Khalil was in the US as a permanent resident with a green book, they said they revoked that.

The Department of Internal Security subsequently said that the arrest was made “in support of the executive orders of President Trump who prohibit anti -Semitism.”

Donald Trump, during his campaign route, promised to act against students who protested in Hamas on the University campuses, and the latest arrest is seen as a repression on the same.

Last Sunday, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, told X that the Trump administration will “revoke the visas and/or the green books of the Hamas supporters in America, so that they can be deported.”

Declaration of issuing Colombia University

The University has launched a statement on the first arrest seen as the first public deportation offer by the Trump Administration.

The graduate faculty of journalism at Colombia University launched the statement on March 14, appearing the freedom of the press and said that it is threatened in the US.

“We witness and experience an alarming chill. We write to assert our commitment to support and exercise first modification for students, faculties and staff on our campus -and, in fact, for all, ”it is shown in a long statement.

The university said that several of their international students were forced to jump courses and events on Campus due to anxiety about the possibilities of being arrested without being accused of a crime.

“They are right to be worried. Some of the members of the faculty and the students who covered the protests on the Gaza war were the subject of friction campaigns and targeted the same sites that were used to bring Khalil to the attention of internal security. President Trump warned that Khalil’s deportation effort is just the first of many, “the University said.

“These actions are threats against the political discourse and the ability of the American press to do their essential job and are part of a larger design to silence voices that are not in favor of the current administration. I also saw reports that immigration and customs execution are trying to deport the Palestinian poet and journalist Mosab Abu Toha, who wrote in New Yorker about the state of residents in Gaza and warned about the mortal danger to Palestinian journalists, he added.

The university mentioned Khalil’s court and said that the 13 million green books in the country will now live for fear that “if they dare to speak or publish something that deals with government opinions.”

“The use of deportation to suppress foreign criticism is parallel to an aggressive campaign to use the laws of slander in Roman ways – even extravagant – to silence or intimidate the independent press,” he said.

However, the government said that Khalil was involved in the distribution of “pro-Hamas propaganda with Hamas’s logo.”

“I have those flames on my desk, they were provided by the interior security department,” said the White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt.

Location:

Washington DC, United States (US)