On Saturday, Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian lawful permanent resident of the US and a prominent Columbia University student organizer, was abducted from his university residence by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in front of his eight-months-pregnant American wife and forcibly disappeared for 24 hours.
His attorney, Amy Greer, said he reappeared the next day at an ICE detention facility in Louisiana. According to an August report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the facility was notorious for human rights abuses, including prolonged solitary confinement, cockroach-infested food, medical neglect, physical assault, and sexual abuse.
The ACLU, Palestine Legal, Writers Against the War on Gaza, and other student activists and human rights groups condemned Khalil's unlawful detention. New York City has been witnessing daily protests demanding his release.
"I don't know Mahmoud Khalil personally, although I have heard him speak. I'm aware that he has always tried to de-escalate tensions and mediate between protesting students and the university," Helen Benedict, a Jewish journalism professor at Columbia, told Ahram Online.
"I would say the main thrust of the students' protests has consistently been to call for an end to the slaughter of Palestinians, a ceasefire, and to denounce Netanyahu's policies in Gaza and the West Bank," she added.
Suppressing the US student Intifada
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump celebrated Khalil's arrest.
"We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country—never to return again," Trump wrote on his Truth Social account. "[...] Your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here. We expect every one of America's Colleges and Universities to comply."
The Trump administration mounted a violent crackdown on Columbia University students for leading a pro-Palestine student intifada [uprising] last spring. The movement, named after the two major Palestinian uprisings against Israel (in 1987 and 2000), severely criticized US foreign policy on Israel, spread to other American universities, and spiralled into a global student movement across campuses in the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Australia.
The student uprising at Columbia was brutally quelled by the NYPD and Homeland Security, who repeatedly stormed the campus to terrorize and arrest students.
Nearly 2,000 students were arrested across US campuses before being released under pressure from their comrades.
Weaponizing AI to ensnare pro-Palestine students
"Before Trump, the Biden administration sought to suppress pro-Palestine students by urging universities to employ draconian surveillance measures since December 2023," Rami Abdelkarim, a Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) activist, told Ahram Online.
"Artificial intelligence and machine learning tools such as Navigate360 have been used to monitor student protesters since the start of the genocide. Universities also employed CCTV, facial recognition analysis, and campus Wi-Fi and keycard access to geolocate students," he added.
Zionist organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League and Canary Mission first used AI technology to dox and terrorize Arab and Muslim pro-Palestine students.
"These groups could not have done so had they not wielded so much power. These are dedicated and organized groups of depraved individuals bent on identifying and terrorizing students, whose methods the surveillance state has adopted," Farida, a Columbia student organizer, told Ahram Online.
"I was doxed removing Zionist propaganda posters. I was also subject to death threats, rape threats, and stalking. They even sent complaints to my department at Columbia and every place I've worked at," she explained.
A red alert for US universities
Meanwhile, The Nation published an op-ed by Dima Khalidi, the founder and director of Palestine Legal, titled "Mahmoud Khalil's Abduction is a Red Alert for Universities."
"Palestine Legal has received over 3,500 requests for legal support since October 2023, many from students facing censorship, accusations, and sanctions for protests typical of student activism," Khalidi wrote.
Farida echoed Khalidi's concerns, telling Ahram Online that the Columbia administration "is fully complicit in state-sanctioned violence the moment it invited the NYPD onto campus—followed by SWAT forces to violently disperse Hind's Hall."
On the other hand, Benedict said that as faculty members keen on protecting their students' right to protest, they wrote several op-eds and articles. "As Jews, we have proclaimed that criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic, but suppressing free speech often is. We have also condemned the harassment and persecution of Arab and Muslim students on campus without any response from the administration," she added.
Individual faculty members have supported pro-Palestine students by convening classes in encampments, extending deadlines, and educating them on the importance of cybersecurity. They have also marched with the students and repeatedly addressed the Board of Trustees.
Mahmoud Khalil's political imprisonment surprisingly even alienated some Trump supporters.
Conservative media pundit Ann Coulter questioned Zionist organizations, especially the revisionist movement Betar, compiling lists of international students who allegedly participated in "pro-Hamas protests".
"There's almost no one I don't want to deport, but unless they've committed a crime, isn't this a violation of the First Amendment?" Coulter wrote on X.
Punishment for speaking truth to power
"The US administration fears that student activists may disrupt the manufactured consensus that sustains US foreign policy, particularly its unconditional support for Israel. Pro-Palestine activism threatens to shift public opinion, challenge elite political and financial interests, and expose the contradictions in US rhetoric about democracy and human rights," Farida stated.
"Moreover, student activism is dangerous to the establishment as it is uncompromising, decentralized, and calls out power in ways mainstream institutions won't," she added.
On Wednesday, two sources in the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department told independent media outlet Zeteo that Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally approved Khalil's arrest using a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
Rubio used a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), specifically section 237(a)(4)(C)(i) of the act, which reads: "An alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable."
This allows him the power to deport anyone who is neither a citizen nor a national if they meet the ambiguous threshold of "reasonable ground" of belief that they might have "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences" for the US.
"The Trump administration has banned the entry of Palestinians, Syrians, Venezuelans, and other nationalities into the US, especially Muslims. It also wants to end the refugee resettlement program, rescind TPS (Temporary Protected Status) for everyone, and end the US as a refuge for anyone fleeing persecution and war," Benedict told Ahram Online.
She added, "Trump cares nothing for anti-semitism but wants to dismantle higher education where thinkers are cultivated and opposition is born. The persecution of pro-Palestine students hides fascism."
The New York Times published a feature titled This Is the Greatest Threat to Free Speech Since the Red Scare, echoing sentiments from US citizens, residents, NGOs, and grassroots organizations.
Columbia expels students
On the other hand, pro-Palestine civil society and grassroots organizations have been raising funds for Khalil and his wife. Students have organized rallies in solidarity, and over 1.6 million people have signed a petition demanding his immediate release.
The Trump administration revoked Khalil's green card despite pressure from civil society.
On Wednesday, New York federal Judge Jesse Furman halted Khalil's deportation until his attorneys and the federal government appeared in court. The hearing concluded that Khalil would remain in ICE custody in Louisiana but mandated that he be allowed to make phone calls.
According to CNN, Ramzi Kassem, an attorney of Khalil's, said outside the court that Khalil's defence has not spoken with their client once since he was taken off the streets of New York City. "He was taken by US government agents in retaliation, essentially, for exercising his First Amendment rights, for speaking up in defence of Palestinians in Gaza and beyond, for being critical of the US government and of the Israeli government," Kassem added.
Meanwhile, Columbia University sanctioned students who occupied Hind Hall last spring, expelling, suspending, and revoking dozens of pro-Palestine students' diplomas, including Ph.D. student and graduate student union president Grant Miner, who the NYPD had arrested.
Some Arabs and Muslims reported they had been fired for responding to vitriol from Zionists.
In Miami Beach, the mayor shut down a cinema for playing Palestinian-Israeli Oscar-winning film No Other Land.
However, all is not bleak, and resistance is oppression's shadow.
Mahmoud and students across the US resist
"The government's response to pro-Palestine action is a sign of weakness, not strength," Farida said. "It shows that the state recognizes this movement's potential to radicalize broader segments of the population and challenge the political status quo. Young people refusing intimidation and organizing despite repression signals a deeper crisis for those in power—one they are scrambling to contain."
During the Wednesday court hearing, thousands staged a sit-in outside the courthouse in NYC. Simultaneously, youth activists gathered outside the ICE detention facility, chanting for Khalil's release.
On Thursday, Jewish Voice for Peace activists and allies occupied Trump Tower, chanting against state fascism and demanding Khalil's freedom.
On the same day, Khalil and seven anonymous Columbia University and Barnard College students filed a lawsuit against the school and Congress, accusing them of handing over students' disciplinary records to the federal government.
During the intifada, the US House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce subpoenaed Columbia for student records, an action it repeated in February.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, seeks to prevent Columbia from complying with House subpoenas and demands financial compensation for records already submitted.
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