NEWARK, NJ − Mahmoud Khalil emerged though the airport gate, fist raised and smiling to a cheering crowd, as he pushed his newborn baby’s stroller with his arm around his wife.
Arriving at Newark International Airport the afternoon of June 21, a day after a federal judge ordered his release from immigration detention, the 30-year-old Columbia University graduate and Palestinian activist vowed to keep up his advocacy. Standing with his family and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, he declared he wouldn't be deterred.
“Your words of support, your messages, have kept me going,” Khalil said in brief remarks. “Still, the fight is far from over.”
He planned to continue speaking out against what he called a genocide in Gaza, and American support, including from Columbia, for Israel's siege of the Palestinian territory after the 2023 Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel. Israel has denied this accusation, though some human rights observers have reached this conclusion.
At the airport, Khalil approached the crowd to take a Palestinian flag from a friend, then draped it over the stroller of his son Deen, who was born 2 months ago, while Khalil was detained in Jena, Louisiana.
