Weekly Briefing: Crackdown on Pro-Palestinian Activism Escalates

The big story dominating U.S. news about Palestine this week is the arrest, detention, and attempted deportation of Mahmoud Khalil. By now readers of Mondoweiss likely know about this story. Khalil is a recent graduate of Columbia University, having finished a Master’s degree. He was a prominent figure in the student protests that erupted last year, first on Columbia’s campus, and then spreading around the country. He was one of the main student negotiators meeting with university officials to work out how the protest would proceed, and he appeared as a spokesperson for the students, including here in Mondoweiss.

Khalil’s arrest and disappearance into the federal immigration deportation system is a direct attack by the Trump administration on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. There should be no confusion about that point. It is also a clear effort to use the brute force of the state to frighten students into submission and drive universities into collaboration with an increasingly authoritarian regime. We’ve reported extensively on this case, and there are several stories linked below that I strongly encourage you to read and share with your networks.

The Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism isn’t just about silencing dissent on Israel—it’s part of a broader, cynical assault on liberal education and liberal institutions. By framing student protests as dangerous, un-American, and antisemitic the administration is exploiting the bipartisan support for Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide of Palestinians to carry out their wider campaign against free speech and academic freedom. Yet the Democratic Party, long an enthusiastic supporter of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians, is largely incapable of, or unwilling to, mount a meaningful defense. Its deep political, financial, and ideological entanglements with pro-Israel interests have left it paralyzed, unable to push back against this authoritarian overreach without exposing its own complicity. As a result, the broader assault on basic U.S. civil rights and civil liberties proceeds with little resistance from the very party that claims to defend them.

We’ve also published several important pieces about events in Palestine. I encourage everyone to read Qassam Muaddi’s powerful interview with Amir Abu Raddaha, who was released in a prisoner exchange after 23 years in Israel’s prison.

In solidarity,
Dave Reed, Publisher

Must Read: The Shift: The detention of Mahmoud Khalil

Michael Arria: Mahmoud Khalil’s case represents a horrifying precedent, but it is not developing in a vacuum. The Trump administration’s unprecedented assault on Khalil is one of many efforts to stifle dissent and stave off justice for Palestine. Read Michael’s first report on Khalil’s arrest here.

Catch-up

🏛️ Michael Arria: Columbia University issued suspensions, expulsions, and temporary degree revocations to students connected to the April 2024 occupation of Hamilton Hall, as part of an intensifying crackdown by the Trump administration on student activists.

🇵🇸 Tareq Hajjaj: Palestinians in Gaza’s border areas have continued to be killed and injured on a daily basis since the ceasefire began in mid-January. A resident of Shuja’iyya tells Mondoweiss, “The war has not stopped, quite the opposite. The war intensified.”

🏛️ Helyeh Doutaghi: Yale Law School placed Helyeh Doutaghi on leave after she was falsely accused of “terrorism” over her support for Palestine. She says her case reflects the new era of Zionist McCarthyism and that this repression reveals an empire in decline.

🧑‍⚖️ Michael Arria: In a hearing in New York City on Wednesday, Mahmoud Khalil’s attorneys said they have not been allowed to contact him since his detention. Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s rationale for detaining Khalil continues to change.

🇺🇸 Mitchell Plitnick: The Trump administration’s direct negotiations with Hamas have broken precedent and angered Israel. Envoy Adam Boehler defended them to CNN saying the U.S. is “not an agent of Israel,” but how much daylight exists between the allies?

🇵🇸 Qassam Muaddi: As part of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Amir Abu Raddaha was freed from Israeli prison after 23 years. He spoke to Mondoweiss about his time behind bars and the horrific conditions of Palestinian prisoners since October 7.

📜 Ahmad Ibsais: The fight to free Mahmoud Khalil is not merely about preserving First Amendment rights, it is about whether we will allow our government to criminalize resistance to its complicity in human rights abuses and genocide.

✊🏼 Anonymous Contributor: They can deport every last one of us, but they cannot erase the spirit of Palestinian resistance. That is what they fear.

📈 Tareq Hajjaj: As prices soar and essential goods disappear, famine conditions threaten to return to Gaza following Israel’s closure of the border and the suspension of the delivery of fuel and aid.

🏥 Alice Rothchild: False charges of antisemitism in the U.S. healthcare community are spreading anti-Palestinian racism and doing irreparable harm to our work and obligation as healers.

🇮🇱 Sara El-Solh: Israel’s founding myth of “making the desert bloom” could only work if it eliminated all traces of the society that came before it. That’s why Zionism has always sought to erase the Palestinian people, from the Nakba to the genocide in Gaza.