WASHINGTON — Since he was freed from a federal detention facility one month ago, Mahmoud Khalil said he often hears a question: Can regular people shift U.S. policy toward Israel-Palestine, and do anything about the crackdown on speech about the subject?
People tell him they feel trapped or unable to challenge the American military and diplomatic support enabling Israel’s devastating ongoing offensive in Gaza. Khalil, a green card holder who organized protests against the Gaza war while a graduate student at Columbia University and whom the Trump administration is attempting to deport, recommends a broader view.
“The change is happening, although they are trying to distract us from that,” Khalil, an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent, told HuffPost on Tuesday. “The fact that this administration took an extra mile in prosecuting me, in coming after the student movement, is a great testament to the success of this movement, where you have the President of the United States and all his Cabinet focusing on curbing the student movement because it is working.”
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Khalil traveled to Washington, D.C., this week in hopes of encouraging change through Congress. He spent a whirlwind two days meeting with nearly 20 lawmakers, nearly all Democrats, from younger progressives like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) to powerful established figures like Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.)
His priority was urging legislators “to stop the U.S.-funded genocide in Gaza,” Khalil said, noting mass starvation there as Israel tightly limits the entry and distribution of supplies, forcing Palestinians to crowd at aid hubs, where they often face firing from Israeli soldiers and American contractors that has killed more than 1,000. (The U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation disputes that toll.)
“They’re weaponizing food, actually, to engineer a famine in Gaza,” he continued. On Wednesday, a coalition of more than 100 humanitarian groups, which Israel is largely barring from operating in the region, issued a joint statement accusing Tel Aviv of starving 2.1 million Palestinians and noting that using starvation as a tool of warfare is a war crime. Israel argues its campaign is focused on the militant group Hamas and it limits harm to civilians.
Khalil and his allies are “not backing down,” he said: “We will continue to resist until every Palestinian gets justice, freedom and dignity.”
He is additionally seeking “to hold the Trump administration and Columbia University accountable,” Khalil continued, charging both with “a broader effort … to silence speech.”
Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images
On Monday, Columbia disciplined nearly 80 students, including by revoking degrees from some, for participating in antiwar demonstrations; the school hopes to win back $400 million in federal funding President Donald Trump is withholding over its alleged failure to combat antisemitism. The administration has characterized protests over Gaza as inherently antisemitic for criticizing Israel and highlighted complaints from some Jewish students, though critics have in turn accused Trump of exploiting allegations of antisemitism to attack higher education. Trump is meanwhile still pursuing deportation for Khalil and several other student protesters, though federal judges have repeatedly halted the effort.
Strikingly, Khalil’s visit came almost one year to the day since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress amid ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza. Though more than 100 lawmakers skipped his speech and both then-President Joe Biden and Trump have questioned his strategy, Netanyahu has continued receiving U.S. weapons as Israeli forces have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and his stated goals for the war, including the release of dozens of hostages still held by Hamas, have remained unfulfilled.
Khalil’s Washington trip demonstrated how entrenched hardline pro-Israel narratives remain in elite circles. Giving a live interview on CNN Tuesday, Khalil was asked repeatedly by anchor Pamela Brown to condemn Hamas.
It is “disingenuous and absurd to ask such questions when literally 62,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel,” Khalil told Brown, adding he would not engage with the question because “selective condemnations … wouldn’t get us anywhere.”
Nearly two years into the war, he told HuffPost he is still surprised by the “indifference that U.S. policymakers have regarding Palestine” and their “level of complicity in such flagrant and obvious war crimes.” In his meetings with legislators, Khalil said they described “how difficult” it remains in Congress to advocate for Palestinians because of the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), whose donors often fund campaigns against politicians critical of Israel.
Still, amid increased awareness of the crisis in Gaza, “none can claim that they didn’t know … [and] the American public are awakened now,” he said. “That’s why it’s very important that we continue to push … unfortunately, institutions are a little bit slow in responding to the change on the ground, but it’s happening.”
“To me, it’s a no-brainer that Biden was as bad as Trump is … the Biden administration would actually gaslight you.”
– Activist Mahmoud Khalil
Khalil pointed to the recent victory in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor by Zohran Mamdani, who has been involved in advocacy against the war; the two men recently appeared together onstage at a comedy show.
“Supporting Palestine is not a taboo in U.S. politics — it’s happening,” he said.
As Khalil and his group walked along, a group of antiwar activists yelling slogans in the hot sun became visibly emotional upon spotting him. Several young staffers in congressional office buildings asked to have their picture taken with him and he carried along a blue gift bag, a present from Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) for his infant son Deen, who was born while Khalil was in immigration detention.
“They wanted to make an example out of me. They wanted me to be intimidated so I wouldn’t speak for the rights of the Palestinian people and I find it very hard to reconcile my silence where my people are getting killed. I really can’t justify anyone’s silence when such atrocities are happening under our nose,” Khalil told HuffPost.
When Khalil was targeted for deportation and arrested in March, the administration claimed his beliefs meant his presence in the U.S. could hurt American foreign policy, without accusing him of any crime. On May 28, district judge Michael Farbiarz said the administration had not proved that case. U.S. officials then told the judge alleged irregularities in Khalil’s green card application provided additional justification for detaining him, but on June 20, Farbiarz ruled that Khalil should be released on bail. The administration maintains its assertion he is a threat: during Khalil’s congressional meetings on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security issued an X post calling Khalil “a terrorist sympathizer” and accusing him of antisemitism. Khalil and his lawyers argue the government has subjected him to major reputational harm and highlight his rejection of antisemitism.
Spencer Platt via Getty Images
Khalil emphasized that a reckoning over alarming U.S. policies must acknowledge they have been bipartisan.
“The Biden administration laid the groundwork to my detention, to the repression of freedom of speech in this country, by aligning with the Israeli narrative and the Zionist narrative in this country that what is happening is antisemitism or violence,” he told HuffPost. “To me it’s a no-brainer that Biden was as bad as Trump is. It’s just, this administration, they’re not shying from [it] … the Biden administration would actually gaslight you: ‘Oh, we’re actually for peace or we’re helping.’ No, you’re not — you literally gave Israel everything it needs to commit this genocide.”
In addition to fighting the government’s attempt to detain and deport him in courts in New Jersey and Louisiana, Khalil is now seeking $20 million in damages or an official apology from the Trump administration for his detention. HuffPost asked if he has faith American legal processes can provide justice.
“We have to try … I want accountability through any avenue,” Khalil said. “I’m confident I have a very good case as a judge has already ruled that my arrest was likely unconstitutional … I want to hold accountable everyone, literally everyone, who has contributed to my illegal prosecution [and] this administration for also spreading all these lies about me.”
Free for only a month after a shock arrest in the lobby of his apartment building and 104 days in captivity thousands of miles away from his home in New York, the soft-spoken 30-year-old struggles to describe his feelings. He described joy at being reunited with his wife and son but also a deep sense of duty even as he faces continued risk.
“What I went through is literally a drop in the sea of injustices that Palestinians have to face on a daily basis … now my arrest accidentally gave me this platform to be able to actually advocate more and more for the rights of Palestinians,” Khalil said. “I did not choose to be in such a position, but now that such a position is imposed upon me, I will take that responsibility with pride — because that’s what Palestinians do: just resist and continue resistance until we get our rights.”
