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Why Was Palestinian Student Leader Mahmoud Khalil Detained?
The meaning of ‘shalom’ I know is ‘peace.’ A political arrest isn’t peaceful.
Over the weekend, ICE agents came to Columbia University housing in New York City and arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate.
A Palestinian born in a Syrian refugee camp, he’s a legal permanent resident of the US with a green card. His wife, a U.S. citizen, is 8 months pregnant. Their baby will also be a U.S. citizen. Khalil led student protests at Columbia University against violence in Gaza.
Arno Rosenfeld explains that “a far-right Jewish group called Betar…began compiling a list last fall of international students involved in the protests and shared the database with the Trump administration.”
Columbia professor emerita Marianne Hirsch, who taught comparative literature and gender studies and writes about intergenerational trauma, says in the Jewish magazine The Forward that Khalil “should have been protected by the First Amendment to speak and act in support of Palestinian freedom.”
Furthermore, Hirsch continues, “with the withdrawal of 400 million dollars of Columbia’s federal research funding announced within a day of Khalil’s arrest, it should be obvious to everyone that what is happening on this…
