Almost 100 arrested during protest occupying Trump Tower over Mahmoud Khalil
Protesters organized by a progressive Jewish group occupied the lobby of Trump Tower in New York on Thursday to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian Columbia University student held by US immigration authorities, and nearly 100 were arrested.
Chanted slogans included âfree Mahmoud, free them allâ and âfight Nazis, not studentsâ.
Other chants in footage posted to social media included: âWe will not comply, Mahmoud, we are on your sideâ and: âBring Mahmoud home now.â
At a news briefing on Thursday afternoon, a police official said those arrested faced charges including trespassing, obstruction and resisting arrest.
Many of the protesters in a group estimated to be between 100 and 300 strong wore red T-shirts bearing the message âJews say stop arming Israelâ. By early afternoon, footage was posted showing officers from the New York police department beginning to arrest protesters.
The protest in the gold-coloured lobby of Donald Trumpâs signature Fifth Avenue building, the presidentâs New York home, was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, which describes itself as âthe largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the worldâ and has staged protests at New York landmarks including Grand Central Station.
In a statement, the group said: âThe detention of Mahmoud is further proof that we are on the brink of a full takeover by a repressive, authoritarian regime.
âAs Jews of conscience, we know our history and we know where this leads. Itâs on all of us to stand up now. Many of us are the descendants of people who resisted European fascism and far too many of our ancestors lost their lives in that struggle. We call on the strength of our ancestors and we call on our tradition, which teaches us we must never stand idly by.â
The actor Debra Winger participated in the protest, the Associated Press reported.
Accusing the Trump administration of having âno interest in Jewish safetyâ and âco-opting antisemitismâ, Winger told the AP: âIâm just standing up for my rights, and Iâm standing up for Mahmoud Khalil, who has been abducted illegally and taken to an undisclosed location. Does that sound like America to you?â
Khalil, 30, was a lead organizer of protests at Columbia University over Israelâs war in Gaza, which began after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023.
Having completed a masterâs degree, Khalil is due to graduate from Columbia in May. Though he is a legal permanent US resident and is married to an American citizen, he was arrested in New York last Saturday.
He is now in custody in Louisiana, without charge but held under a rarely used immigration law provision that allows the secretary of state to approve the detention of anyone deemed a threat to US foreign policy.
His lawyer, Baher Azmy, the director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, has said the arrest is âabsolutely unprecedentedâ and âessentially a form of retaliation and punishment for the exercise of free speechâ.
Amid Trump administration attacks on universities over pro-Palestinian protests, observers say Khalil is being used as a test case for mass arrests. Trump has said Khalilâs arrest is âthe first of many to comeâ, and promised to deport students seen to be guilty of âpro-terrorist, antisemitic, anti-American activityâ. Khalil has not been accused of breaking any laws.
On Thursday, Khalilâs wife, Noor Abdalla, who is eight months pregnant, spoke to Reuters. She said Khalil asked her a week ago if she knew what to do if officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) came to the door of their home.
âI didnât take him seriously. Clearly I was naive,â she said.
She added: âI think it would be very devastating for me and for him to meet his first child behind a glass screen.â
Her husband âis Palestinian and heâs always been interested in Palestinian politicsâ, she said. âHeâs standing up for his people, heâs fighting for his people.â
Abdalla, 28, said in a statement read by one of Khalilâs attorneys on Wednesday: âMy husband was kidnapped from our home, and it is shameful that the US government continues to hold him because he stood for the rights and lives of his people. I demand his immediate release and return to our family.
âSo many who know and love Mahmoud have come together, refusing to stay silent. Their support is a testament to his character and to the deep injustice of what is being done to him.â
Sonya E Meyerson-Knox, the director of communications for Jewish Voice for Peace, posted footage of the Trump Tower protest on Thursday and said: âWe will not comply â Mahmoud we are in your side[,] 300 Jews and friends in Trump Towers [sic] [because] we know what happens when an autocratic regime starts taking away our rights and scapegoating and we will not be silent[.] COME FOR ONE – FACE US ALL[.]â
Later, Meyerson-Knox told NBC News: âMy grandmother lost her cousins in the Holocaust. I grew up on these stories. We know what happens when authoritarian regimes begin targeting people, begin abducting them at night, separating their families and scapegoating. And we know that itâs one step from here to losing all right to protest and then further horrors happening, as we have seen too well in our history.
âWeâre calling on everyone to speak up today because otherwise we wonât be able to tomorrow.â
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