Activist condemns Columbia’s ‘shameful trustees’ but praises students’ courage after release from Ice detention
Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian rights activist, freed from Ice detention on Friday, returned to Columbia University on Sunday to renew his commitment to the cause of Palestinian freedom and opposition to both the university and the Trump administration.
Khalil arrived back in New York on Saturday after being released from more than 100 days in detention in Louisiana by a federal judge who ruled that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter was unconstitutional and ordered his immediate release on bail.
Just outside of Columbia’s gates and reunited with wife Noor Abdalla, Khalil thanked his supporters, legal team and “to salute the courage of all students at Columbia and across the nation who had continued to protest”.
Khalil made clear that following his release from detention he would battle what he called the “shameful trustees at Columbia that are currently attempting to expel 15 more students and to suspend tens of others, basically conceding their future, their degrees and labor because they are not afraid to stand for Palestine”.
