Mahmoud Khalil urges ‘further protests’ in fiery letter from prison, accuses Columbia of ‘laying groundwork’ for arrest
Anti-Israel Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil has called himself a “political prisoner” — while urging students to respond with even more protests.
“My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner,” Khalil said in a fiery letter written from his Louisiana immigration detention facility.
Khalil, head of the hardline pro-Palestinian group Columbia University Apartheid Divest, called his arrest “a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza.”
He accused Columbia’s leaders of having “laid the groundwork for the US government to target me by arbitrarily disciplining pro-Palestinian students and allowing viral doxing campaigns — based on racism and disinformation — to go unchecked.”
He urged for even more protests.
“If anything, my detention is a testament to the strength of the student movement in shifting public opinion toward Palestinian liberation,” he wrote.
“In the weeks ahead, students, advocates, and elected officials must unite to defend the right to protest for Palestine. At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all.”
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