Pro-Hamas Protester Mahmoud Khalil Slams Columbia University After Release From ICE Custody [WATCH]

June 23, 2025

Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent anti-Israel protester and Columbia University alumnus, criticized the Ivy League school during a public rally in New York City on Sunday, accusing the institution of abandoning him during his months in federal immigration custody, as reported by The New York Post.

Speaking outside the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, just blocks from the Columbia campus, Khalil accused his former university of failing to support him after his March 8 arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Mahmoud Khalil stands outside Columbia University, where he’s a graduate student, in April 2024. On March 12, 2025, a U.S. judge extended his order blocking federal authorities from deporting a detained Khalil. His lawyers say his arrest by Department of Homeland Security agents outside his university residence in Manhattan was in retaliation for his outspoken advocacy against Israel’s military assault on Gaza following the militant group Hamas’ October 2023 attack, and thus violated Khalil’s right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

Wearing a blue polo shirt bearing the message “Lift the siege on Gaza,” Khalil condemned what he called Columbia’s “hypocrisy.”

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“I must call the hypocrisy of Columbia University. A university that just two weeks ago said that they want to protect their international students,” Khalil said.

“While over 100 days later, I haven’t received a single call from this university.”

Khalil, a Syrian-born permanent U.S. resident, was held at a detention facility in Louisiana for 104 days after the Trump administration moved to deport him, citing his threat to U.S. foreign policy interests, particularly regarding Israel and the Middle East.

He was released on Friday after a New Jersey judge found his detention likely unconstitutional and ordered his release. His legal team continues to fight a standing deportation order, which the Trump administration is appealing.

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At the rally, Khalil was joined by his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, their infant son Deen—born while Khalil was in ICE custody—and several members of his legal team and activist supporters.

Supporters of ICE-detained Mahmoud Khalil march in downtown New York City on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, to demand his release from immigration custody. Khalil, who helped lead last year’s pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, holds a green card and is a permanent U.S. resident but has been detained by the federal government.

Attendees waved Palestine flags, wore keffiyehs, and held signs reading “Welcome home” and “Abolish ICE.”

“I also must call out their double standards,” Khalil said, accusing the university of enabling harassment.

“How did we become targets of Israel-aligned groups? Because Columbia University failed to protect students. Columbia University, in fact, emboldened these individuals to continue to harass and harm students.”

Khalil said he initially requested to hold the rally at Columbia but was denied by the school. “Columbia administrators never disappoint to disappoint. So, I’m not surprised,” he said.

“They are the ones who know me very well. They are the ones who, in private, in fact, tell me that there is anti-Palestinian racism in Columbia, that there is manufactured hysteria about antisemitism at Columbia University because of our protests, but they don’t dare to talk about that in public.”

Though welcomed by supporters, Khalil stressed that his legal battle is not over. “My being here today is sweet but it is not a victory,” he said.

Mahmoud Khalil is again leading antisemitic chants outside of Columbia University now that he was wrongly freed by an activist judge.

Khalil is a radical jihadist. So is his gross wife. They both need to be deported along with their child.

NOW.pic.twitter.com/zkm0HqGj8K

— Paul A. Szypula (@Bubblebathgirl) June 22, 2025

Columbia University did not respond to a request for comment.

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