Arrest Of Palestinian Columbia Activist Divides American Jews

(RNS) — The arrest of a former Columbia University graduate scholar who had a leading role on campus criticizing Israel’s warfare in Gaza has sparked fascinating divisions within the American Jewish neighborhood.

Mahmoud Khalil, an activist in final 365 days’s pro-Palestinian campus protests that ended in tent encampments, changed into once arrested by U.S. immigration agents on Saturday (March 8) as half of the Trump administration’s pledge to deport anti-Israel scholar activists. Khalil, who is of Palestinian descent but grew up in Syria, is a permanent resident of the US.

His arrest changed into once hailed by some sectors of the American Jewish neighborhood, collectively with the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that fights antisemitism. The ADL launched a assertion applauding the “swift and excessive consequences for of us that present subject subject reinforce to international terrorist organizations.” Khalil has no longer been charged with subject subject or any other reinforce to a terrorist organization.

Likewise, American Jewish Committee, a world Jewish advocacy organization, mentioned in a March 11 assertion it’s a long way “appalled by the views and actions” of Khalil and, “could easy the authorities show conceal its case in a instructed and public shapely proceeding, and Khalil is afforded due course of, then deportation will probably be fully justified.”

Other Jews had been outraged by the arrest, which they viewed as a blatant violation of  civil liberties collectively with free speech and the honest to exclaim.

“The Trump administration is exploiting trusty issues about antisemitism to undercut democracy,” wrote Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the nonpartisan Jewish Council for Public Affairs, on social media space X. “As we’ve persistently mentioned: this makes Jews — and so many others — much less safe.”

Khalil’s arrest came a day after the Trump administration pulled $400 million in federal funding from the university, claiming it hadn’t addressed antisemitism that elevated on campus since Oct. 7, 2023.

The reaction to the arrest of the Palestinian activist reveals a rising schism in the American Jewish neighborhood between these defending Israel and focused on Jewish security and these dedicated to longstanding liberal values that consist of speaking out in opposition to Israel.

IfNotNow, a Jewish organization excessive of Israel, alongside the Unusual York-primarily based Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, mounted an indication with college from Columbia and BarNard College come the Columbia campus in Upper Ny on Monday. One other demonstration at Foley Square in Decrease Ny drew many of of of us waving Palestinian flags. They denounced violations to Khalil’s First Modification rights and the broader implications with out cost speech.

Khalil is being held at a detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, staring at for immigration court complaints. On Monday, a federal resolve temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s try to deport him. It’s no longer obvious on what grounds the authorities can deport a permanent resident with out a felony conviction.

Israel’s overwhelming retaliation for the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas assault, in which it has killed cease to 50,000 Palestinians, has led many American Jews to tag that Jews are victims of antisemitism.

At many colleges, Jewish students argued the takeovers of constructions all by the protests prevented them from going to class. As well they mentioned affords handed out at encampments, some featuring denunciations of Zionism, the ideology undergirding the introduction of Israel, and its occupation of Palestinian territory made them if truth be told feel unsafe on campus.

But other Jews, collectively with many Jewish students that participated in the professional-Palestinian campus protests, mentioned criticism of Israel is no longer inherently antisemitic. Nor could easy it be labeled as “pro-terrorist,” or “pro-Hamas,” because the Trump administration and other staunch Israel supporters private tried to complete.

“It have to be obvious to everyone that what’s taking place on this campus, or to this campus, is no longer about preserving Jews,” mentioned professor Marianne Hirsch of Columbia Jewish School Crew. “My dedicated Jewish college colleagues and I private warned that the false characterization of (Columbia University) as a hotbed of antisemitism could be broken-down as an alibi for what’s if truth be told at stake for the Republican institution and now the Trump administration — strict retain watch over of speech, of exclaim and of better education at huge.”

Hillel, the Jewish scholar organization on college campuses, which tracks experiences of antisemitism on campus and works to safeguard Jewish students, didn’t reply to requests for observation.

The Union for Reform Judaism, the nation’s largest Jewish denomination in the US, likewise declined to observation.

Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, CEO of the Conservative motion’s Rabbinical Meeting, told RNS, “Any efforts to contend with the insupportable episodes of antisemitism that Jewish students private persevered at Columbia University must pronounce due course of below the law.”

Rabbi Moshe Hauer, govt vice president of the Orthodox Union, had a certain opinion. He told The Unusual York Conditions that “novel, aggressive and shapely tactics are clearly needed” to contend with antisemitism.

It’s no longer but obvious how immigration officials learned about Khalil or what he’s being charged with. In emails Khalil sent to Columbia administrators, he knew he changed into once being targeted and sought protection.

“Since the day past, I were subjected to a vicious, coordinated and dehumanizing doxxing advertising and marketing campaign led by Columbia friends Shai Davidai and David Lederer who, amongst others, private labeled me a security threat and known as for my deportation,” he wrote in an email obtained by the Zeteo details organization, referring by identify to recent and former Columbia college who private allegedly gone after him in a doxxing advertising and marketing campaign. (Doxxing is when  personally identifiable facts a number of particular person or organization is made public, in general online.)

Meanwhile, The Intercept reported that the WhatsApp personnel Columbia Alumni for Israel, which has over 1,000 participants, sought the deportation of any worldwide scholar excessive of Israel.

It’s also probably Columbia University itself offered immigration agents with details. The university changed into once subpoenaed by the U.S. Dwelling Committee on Education and the Personnel final 365 days and asked to present over all disciplinary complaints in opposition to pro-Palestinian protesters since Oct. 7, 2023. Columbia submitted the documents in compliance with the committee’s Aug. 21 subpoena, elevating issues about confidentiality and scholar privateness, collectively with violation of the Family Tutorial Rights and Privateness Act.

Final 365 days, Khalil changed into once suspended from his graduate program for his role in the campus demonstrations, but the suspension changed into once reversed for lack of proof, and he achieved his degree in December 2024.

Khalil changed into once interesting in Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of scholar organizations that undercover agent Palestine because the forefront for their collective liberation. He’s married, and his considerable other, a U.S. citizen, is eight months pregnant.

Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg of Malkhut, a revolutionary Jewish congregation in Queens, attended Monday’s rally come Columbia, pronouncing she felt compelled to focus on out in opposition to Khalil’s arrest.

“I private to shriek it very obvious that the Trump administration and the plot they focus on about preserving Jews from antisemitism doesn’t stand for us, for me, and that the huge majority of the Jewish neighborhood on this country cares about better education, cares about free speech,” she mentioned. “As a Jew, as a rabbi, as a Jewish leader, it’s a must wish to me for American citizens to possess that (Trump) doesn’t focus on for Jews.”