Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian activist who was detained for over three months, is suing the Trump administration for its communications with the anti-Palestinian groups that helped facilitate his arrest.
“For months, shady organizations and individuals carried out a smear and harassment campaign designed to intimidate and silence me,” Khalil told Zeteo. “The public deserves full accountability for every bad actor who helped make that possible, including those at Columbia who fabricated and amplified these smears and opened the door for state retaliation against Palestinian speech.”
The move follows a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from Khalil’s lawyers in May, which the administration refused to comply with.
Weeks before Khalil’s arrest, the Zionist group Betar USA, an offshoot of Betar, included his name on a “Deportation List,” which it said it shared with members of the administration, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
During a trial connected to the arrests and detentions of Palestine activists, an ICE official admitted that the government consulted the doxxing site Canary Mission to find students to target.
“Mr. Khalil and the public at large have the right to know about the depth of the collusion between the federal government and the shadowy groups targeting people who speak out against a genocide,” said Center for Constitutional Rights attorney Adina Marx-Arpadi in a press release.
The lawsuit seeks all communications between lCE, the DOJ, the DOS, and DHS and Canary Mission, Betar, Documenting Jew Hatred On Campus, Columbia Alumni for Israel, Middle East Forum, Shirion Collective, Capital Research Center, and CAMERA.
Khalil, a recent graduate of Columbia University, was recently denied access to the campus for three recent events over alleged security concerns. In the most recent instance, Khalil was supposed to attend a screening of “The Encampments,” a documentary about the student movement in which he was involved.
Palestine repression continues at Columbia and CUNY
The crackdown on campus activism might have faded from the headlines, but organizing and suppression have not subsided.
Earlier this month, an Olive Harvest festival set to take place on Columbia University’s campus was shut down by the administration.
“Columbia is so terrified of their own students that they are willing to shut down cultural events,” said the Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition (CPSC) in a statement responding to the cancelation.
“We want to make it clear to Columbia University that just like the Palestinian people, we are not going anywhere,” it continued. “We will not be intimidated by threats and baseless accusations that fall away when challenged in a court of law. Palestine will be free. It’s just a matter of time.”
This month, Columbia University also made headlines after its Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing (ACSRI) rejected a proposal to divest from Israel, which had been touted by Columbia University Apartheid Divest.
The proposals called for the school to “cease any activities that are complicit in human rights violations against Palestinians” and to divest from entities connected to “violations of human rights and international law in Palestine.”
The committee said the call was too vague.
“The proposal would imply no end to the list of companies that could be categorized as violating human rights,” it explained. “The proposal could potentially encompass much of the stock market, making any investment activity difficult.”
On November 13, more than 100 students at the City College of New York (CCNY) walked out of an interfaith workshop after a speaker from Hillel organization, a pro-Israel organization that has collaborated with the anti-Palestinian doxxing site Canary Mission.
This has become a major media story, as the move has been connected to Abdullah Mady, a Muslim speaker and CCNY alumnus.
“I came here to this event not knowing that I would be sitting next to a Zionist, and this is something I’m not going to accept. My people are being killed right now in Gaza,” Mady told the room. “If you’re a Muslim, out of strength and dignity, I ask you to exit this room immediately.”
The Justice Department has now opened an investigation into the event. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Civil Rights Division, referred to the situation as “deeply concerning.”
Amani al-Jaghoub, a spokesperson for the school’s SJP chapter, put out a statement on the developments.
“In agreeing to speak at the campus interfaith event, Abdullah Mady was not aware he would be asked to present alongside a committed advocate for Zionism,” said a spokesperson for the Students for Justice in Palestine of City College of New York (CCNY SJP). He, like many of us, was unwilling to accept this, in light of the mass killing and starvation of his people in Gaza. We stand firmly behind Mady’s statements and the decision made by the students to walk out of the event in protest. The targeted campaign against him and CCNY SJP only exposes the desperate and Islamophobic effort to control campus narratives about the Zionist occupation of Palestine.”
Further Reading
- JNS: Michigan student government votes to divest from Israel
- Al Jazeera: Palestine Action cofounder to challenge group’s proscription in UK court
- The Intercept: How Corporate Partnerships Powered University Surveillance of Palestine Protests
- LA Progressive: “Microsoft Ignites” Protests for Collusion in Gaza Genocide
