13 March 2025
Regrettably this report in Haaretz will probably never reach the Western mainstream media.
Jewish Columbia Alumni Protest ‘Illegal’ Detention of pro-Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil – U.S. News – Haaretz.com
Judy MaltzMar 13, 2025 5:09 pm IST
More than 120 Jewish alumni of Columbia have signed a public letter denouncing what they termed the “illegal detention” of Mahmoud Khalil by U.S. federal agents, a Columbia graduate who was one of the leaders of the pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
The letter, which began circulating on Wednesday and is still garnering signatures, was initiated by a group operating under the provisional name of Jewish Columbia Alumni for Democracy.
“The Trump administration cynically exploits Jewish feelings of vulnerability and fear to justify its egregious assault on higher education and academic freedom, including on our alma mater,” the letter said. “The Republican assault upon the First Amendment and principles of free expression and inquiry which underpin American universities do not make Jews safe. It endangers us all.”
Khalil, a green card holder of Palestinian descent who is originally from Syria, was detained by federal agents outside his home on Saturday night. It is the first attempt by the new Trump administration to deport foreigners active in the campus protests that swept across the country last year.
Active in Columbia University Apartheid Divest – a virulently anti-Israel organization umbrella organization – Khalil had participated in the protests held in the main Barnard library last week.
A U.S. district judge in New York on Wednesday temporarily blocked attempts to deport him.
Jewish Columbia Alumni for Democracy said in their letter that they rejected “in absolute terms” the Trump administration’s claims that it was acting in the interests of the Jewish community when it targeted Khalil.
“Seizing, detaining, and threatening with deportation a member of Columbia’s broader community for the act of peaceful protest of the acts of a foreign government and of U.S. foreign policy constitutes an assault upon the fabric of our democracy – a democratic society where American Jews have found refuge from absolutists and authoritarian regimes they fled,” the letter said.
People gather outside a New York court to protest the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil at Foley Square on Wednesday in New York City.Credit: Michael M. Santiago/AFP via Getty Images
“We refuse to be used to dismantle American democracy, and we condemn the Trump Administration for its cynical exploitation of our people’s aspirations for safety and inclusion for its own purposes. This is itself an act of antisemitism.”
The U.K. Jewish Academic Network is, meanwhile, leading a similar initiative across the Atlantic. A letter published by the group, demanding Khalil’s immediate release from custody, has been signed by nearly 90 Jewish academics and researchers across the United Kingdom.
“This is chilling evidence of the Trump Administration’s cynical weaponization of supposed concern for Jewish safety to attack freedom of expression,” the letter said.
