Silencing dissent — how Trump is criminalising pro-Palestine activism
Mahmoud Khalil’s case should set alarm bells ringing across the world
THE WORLDVIEW
March 14, 2025
SCORES of protesters gathered in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City on Thursday to condemn the arrest and continued detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who helped organise demonstrations at Columbia University last year against Israel’s brutal bombing of Gaza.
His arrest, widely seen as politically motivated, has sparked an outcry from Democratic lawmakers, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and civil liberties advocates.
The Jewish Voice for Peace, a progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organisation, led the demonstration at Trump Tower, which is owned by President Donald Trump and his family. “We are taking over Trump Tower to register our mass refusal,” the group declared in a post on X. “We will not stand by as this fascist regime attempts to criminalise Palestinians and those calling for an end to the Israeli government’s US-funded genocide.”
Khalil’s case has drawn global attention for two key reasons: first, there is no evidence that he committed any crime, and second, it highlights the lengths to which the US government is willing to go to appease Israel’s leadership.
Why was he arrested?
A legal US resident, Khalil was not arrested for any criminal activity. Instead, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained him under orders from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who personally determined that he should be removed from the country.
Two officials from the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security confirmed to Zeteo News that Khalil was arrested under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Section 237(a)(4)(C)(i) of the INA allows for the deportation of any non-citizen if the Secretary of State has “reasonable grounds” to believe their presence could cause “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the United States.
A White House official told The Free Press that Khalil had not committed an actual crime. “The allegation here is not that he broke the law,” the official admitted. However, they accused him of “mobilising support for Hamas and spreading antisemitism in a way that contradicts US foreign policy.” Khalil has denied these accusations.
Who is Mahmoud Khalil
Khalil’s detention marks the first publicly known deportation attempt related to pro-Palestine activism under President Trump. The administration has vowed to punish students and others it accuses of supporting Hamas or engaging in antisemitic rhetoric — charges critics say are being weaponised to silence dissent.
Khalil was a graduate student at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs during the 2024 pro-Palestinian campus occupations. Born in Syria in 1995 to Palestinian refugees from Tiberias, he fled to Lebanon at age 18, two years after the start of the Syrian civil war.
Journalist Lauren Bohn, who met Khalil while covering the Syrian refugee crisis, noted that he earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Lebanese American University in Beirut. He later worked for the British government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office before immigrating to the US on a student visa in 2022. He completed his master’s degree in December of 2024 and was set to graduate in May 2025.