One month after a judge ordered Mahmoud Khalil’s release from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, the Palestinian student activist has filed a $20 million claim against the Trump administration following his 104 days in detention.
For decades, US public opinion has been hammered by the Zionist lobby to believe that Palestinians are inherently bad, terrorists, antisemites, etc. and that killing them, starving them, demolishing their homes and villages, deporting them and dehumanizing them were somehow acceptable.
Put yourself in the shoes of the Palestinians. One hundred years ago, there were 600,000 indigenous Palestinians born in the land, living in villages, towns and cities. There were 5,000 foreign Jews, all of them pilgrims visiting the holy sites. In 1920, after WWI, the British were granted a mandate by the League of Nations over Palestine to assist the Palestinian people in recovering from 400 years of Turkish occupation. Right next door, the French were given the same exact mandate in Lebanon.
Whereas in Lebanon, France accomplished its mission by giving the country a constitution and institutions in which Muslims and Christians worked out a coexistence formula for shared governance, the British colonial crooks who fucked up every country they colonized (India, South Africa,...) sold Palestine for money to wealthy European Jewish bankers and organized a massive campaign of European Jewish invasion and colonization of Palestine.
The British played both sides against one another: They lied to the Palestinians and pretended that they opposed the illegal Jewish migration to Palestine but did everything in secret to encourage it because colonial Britain needed a foothold near the nascent oil fields in the Arabian peninsula and the Suez Canal. In other words, Israel is a British colonial entreprise settled and manned by European Jews. Soon, the Palestinians realized they were tricked by the British and took up arms against the British and their Jewish settlers. That war of resistance and liberation never ended and is still in play today, though admittedly the less sophisticated Palestinians emerging from 400 years of brutal Turkish occupation could not face up to very wealthy and sophisticated European Jews. The question is not, as Zionists constantly claim, whether the Palestinians missed their chance for peace by accepting the loss of their country: No people can accept that their country be sold to foreign invaders.
If you were Palestinians throughout the trauma of their dispossession during the 20th century and counting, what would you do?
Think about it: What is Trump doing today in the most brutal manner possible? He's ridding America of its migrants and immigrants. Why is it inconceivable for Americans to understand that the Palestinians are still trying to do the exact same thing: Rid themselves of the European migrants and immigrants that took over their country?
From less than 10% around WWI, the illegal Jewish migrant population has slowly grown to become 50% of the population, while the Palestinian population has declined from a supermajority of 90% down to 50%.
Indigenous Palestinian land in dark green. Colonisl Jewish land in white. Who is the invader and spoiler of land? Take the trend you see in these sequential maps, and extrapolate into the future: What will you see? All white and no green. It's called ethnic cleansing.
Mahmoud Khalil Visits Washington To Demand End To U.S. 'Complicity' In Gaza
Akbar Shahid Ahmed
Wed, July 23, 2025
WASHINGTON — Since he was freed from a federal detention facility one month ago, Mahmoud Khalil said he often hears a question: Can regular people shift U.S. policy toward Israel-Palestine, and do anything about the crackdown on speech about the subject?
People tell him they feel trapped or unable to challenge the American military and diplomatic support enabling Israel’s devastating ongoing offensive in Gaza. Khalil, a green card holder who organized protests against the Gaza war while a graduate student at Columbia University and whom the Trump administration is attempting to deport, recommends a broader view.
“The change is happening, although they are trying to distract us from that,” Khalil, an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent, told HuffPost on Tuesday. “The fact that this administration took an extra mile in prosecuting me, in coming after the student movement, is a great testament to the success of this movement, where you have the President of the United States and all his Cabinet focusing on curbing the student movement because it is working.”
Khalil traveled to Washington, D.C., this week in hopes of encouraging change through Congress. He spent a whirlwind two days meeting with nearly 20 lawmakers, nearly all Democrats, from younger progressives like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) to powerful established figures like Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.)
His priority was urging legislators “to stop the U.S.-funded genocide in Gaza,” Khalil said, noting mass starvation there as Israel tightly limits the entry and distribution of supplies, forcing Palestinians to crowd at aid hubs, where they often face firing from Israeli soldiers and American contractors that has killed more than 1,000. (The U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation disputes that toll.)
“They’re weaponizing food, actually, to engineer a famine in Gaza,” he continued. On Wednesday, a coalition of more than 100 humanitarian groups, which Israel is largely barring from operating in the region, issued a joint statement accusing Tel Aviv of starving 2.1 million Palestinians and noting that using starvation as a tool of warfare is a war crime. Israel argues its campaign is focused on the militant group Hamas and it limits harm to civilians.
Khalil and his allies are “not backing down,” he said: “We will continue to resist until every Palestinian gets justice, freedom and dignity.”
He is additionally seeking “to hold the Trump administration and Columbia University accountable,” Khalil continued, charging both with “a broader effort … to silence speech.”
Former Columbia University graduate student and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil shakes hands with Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) outside of his office in the Cannon House Office Building on July 22 in Washington, D.C. Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images
On Monday, Columbia disciplined nearly 80 students, including by revoking degrees from some, for participating in antiwar demonstrations; the school hopes to win back $400 million in federal funding President Donald Trump is withholding over its alleged failure to combat antisemitism. The administration has characterized protests over Gaza as inherently antisemitic for criticizing Israel and highlighted complaints from some Jewish students, though critics have in turn accused Trump of exploiting allegations of antisemitism to attack higher education. Trump is meanwhile still pursuing deportation for Khalil and several other student protesters, though federal judges have repeatedly halted the effort.
Strikingly, Khalil’s visit came almost one year to the day since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress amid ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza. Though more than 100 lawmakers skipped his speech and both then-President Joe Biden and Trump have questioned his strategy, Netanyahu has continued receiving U.S. weapons as Israeli forces have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and his stated goals for the war, including the release of dozens of hostages still held by Hamas, have remained unfulfilled.
Khalil’s Washington trip demonstrated how entrenched hardline pro-Israel narratives remain in elite circles. Giving a live interview on CNN Tuesday, Khalil was asked repeatedly by anchor Pamela Brown to condemn Hamas.
It is “disingenuous and absurd to ask such questions when literally 62,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel,” Khalil told Brown, adding he would not engage with the question because “selective condemnations … wouldn’t get us anywhere.”
Nearly two years into the war, he told HuffPost he is still surprised by the “indifference that U.S. policymakers have regarding Palestine” and their “level of complicity in such flagrant and obvious war crimes.” In his meetings with legislators, Khalil said they described “how difficult” it remains in Congress to advocate for Palestinians because of the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), whose donors often fund campaigns against politicians critical of Israel.
Still, amid increased awareness of the crisis in Gaza, “none can claim that they didn’t know … [and] the American public are awakened now,” he said. “That’s why it’s very important that we continue to push … unfortunately, institutions are a little bit slow in responding to the change on the ground, but it’s happening.”
Khalil pointed to the recent victory in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor by Zohran Mamdani, who has been involved in advocacy against the war; the two men recently appeared together onstage at a comedy show.
“Supporting Palestine is not a taboo in U.S. politics — it’s happening,” he said.
As Khalil and his group walked along, a group of antiwar activists yelling slogans in the hot sun became visibly emotional upon spotting him. Several young staffers in congressional office buildings asked to have their picture taken with him and he carried along a blue gift bag, a present from Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) for his infant son Deen, who was born while Khalil was in immigration detention.
“They wanted to make an example out of me. They wanted me to be intimidated so I wouldn’t speak for the rights of the Palestinian people and I find it very hard to reconcile my silence where my people are getting killed. I really can’t justify anyone’s silence when such atrocities are happening under our nose,” Khalil told HuffPost.
When Khalil was targeted for deportation and arrested in March, the administration claimed his beliefs meant his presence in the U.S. could hurt American foreign policy, without accusing him of any crime. On May 28, district judge Michael Farbiarz said the administration had not proved that case. U.S. officials then told the judge alleged irregularities in Khalil’s green card application provided additional justification for detaining him, but on June 20, Farbiarz ruled that Khalil should be released on bail. The administration maintains its assertion he is a threat: during Khalil’s congressional meetings on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security issued an X post calling Khalil “a terrorist sympathizer” and accusing him of antisemitism. Khalil and his lawyers argue the government has subjected him to major reputational harm and highlight his rejection of antisemitism.
Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil marches with supporters one day after he was released from ICE detention during a rally outside of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan on June 22 in New York City. Spencer Platt via Getty Images
Khalil emphasized that a reckoning over alarming U.S. policies must acknowledge they have been bipartisan.
“The Biden administration laid the groundwork to my detention, to the repression of freedom of speech in this country, by aligning with the Israeli narrative and the Zionist narrative in this country that what is happening is antisemitism or violence,” he told HuffPost. “To me it’s a no-brainer that Biden was as bad as Trump is. It’s just, this administration, they’re not shying from [it] … the Biden administration would actually gaslight you: ‘Oh, we’re actually for peace or we’re helping.’ No, you’re not — you literally gave Israel everything it needs to commit this genocide.”
In addition to fighting the government’s attempt to detain and deport him in courts in New Jersey and Louisiana, Khalil is now seeking $20 million in damages or an official apology from the Trump administration for his detention. HuffPost asked if he has faith American legal processes can provide justice.
“We have to try … I want accountability through any avenue,” Khalil said. “I’m confident I have a very good case as a judge has already ruled that my arrest was likely unconstitutional … I want to hold accountable everyone, literally everyone, who has contributed to my illegal prosecution [and] this administration for also spreading all these lies about me.”
Free for only a month after a shock arrest in the lobby of his apartment building and 104 days in captivity thousands of miles away from his home in New York, the soft-spoken 30-year-old struggles to describe his feelings. He described joy at being reunited with his wife and son but also a deep sense of duty even as he faces continued risk.
“What I went through is literally a drop in the sea of injustices that Palestinians have to face on a daily basis … now my arrest accidentally gave me this platform to be able to actually advocate more and more for the rights of Palestinians,” Khalil said. “I did not choose to be in such a position, but now that such a position is imposed upon me, I will take that responsibility with pride — because that’s what Palestinians do: just resist and continue resistance until we get our rights.”
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