Khalil missed his chance to condemn antisemitism
By: Mike Kelly
Columnist
USA Today Network
..... I have enormous sympathy for the plight of the Palestinian people. but I draw the ling at bigotry and murder.
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This is the problem with Mahmoud Khalil, the activist and graduate student who faces deportation by the Trump administration for his role in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University. he doesn't know how to draw lines.
..... Khalil, an Algerian citizen, born 29 years ago in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, then raised in Lebanon before coming to Columbia to study for a master's degree in public affairs, is suddenly a new American poster boy for free speech. He's not just a hero of progressives, though. Some conservatives are urging Trump not to deport a key element in Khalil's troubles. His problem isn't so much what he said in the course of exercising his First Amendment rights to express his views. His real problem is what he didn't say.
..... Khalil, like so many leaders of pro-Palestinian protests in America and abroad, never condemned the killings commuted by Palestinian Hamas terrorists in Israel on October 7, 2023. for Jews, the death toll on October 7 [2023] was the largest single-day loss of life since the Nazi Holocaust. But you would never know that in listening to the proclamations of pro-Palestinan activists and especially Khalil.
What about Hamas?
..... It's as if Hamas never killed 1,2000 people and wounded 700 others when its operatives swept into southern Israel and raided 21 communities and a music concert. It's as if those Hamas gunmen never returned to the Gaza Strip with some 250 hostages for Israel, inmnent residency, commonly known as green-card status.
..... It was the spring of 2024. the Gaza war raged. Protest broke out at Columbia, with students erecting a tent camp and Jewish students complaining they were routinely harassed with antisemitic slurs and physically threated as they tried to walk to class.
..... Khalil emerged as the face of the protesters. he showed up at press conferences and tried to walk a nuanced line in identifying himself, explaining to journalists that he was really only a negotiator between protester and the university.
..... But you didn't need a graduate degree in public affairs to realize that Khalil clearly was a leader. and in the role, he had plenty of chances to exercise his right of free speech and condemn the overreach by pro-Palestinina protesters in threatening Jewish students on his own campus.
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Sadly, Khalil missed that chance.
..... Yes, he sometimes spoke in resonance tones, appearing to steer clear of outright antisemitism. But he also steered clear of steeping forward and telling pro=Palestinian activists on campus that he would quit their cause if they did not stop their antisemitism.
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He employed a similar hands-off approach in addressing the Hamas murders of October 7, 2023, and the long, cruel captivity of Israeli hostage by Hamas. Again, his problem was not what he said, but what he cleverly avoided saying.
..... He frequently condemned Israel's bombing of Gaza and its treatment of Palestinians in general. But wasn't Hamas also guilty of something? Not to Khalil. when it came to offering even a syllable of criticism of the murders by Hamas and its long history of terrorism, Khalil wore the same rhetorical blinders of may pro-Palestinian activists.
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And so, while Khalil tired to position himself as a negotiator described by The New Yorker magazine as an "interlocutor" between the protesters and the university, his words and deeds told a different story. Yes, he tied to give the impression that he was not advocating for Hamas. Like many protesters, he even refused to cover his face to avoid identification, reportedly telling his wife eh has done nothing wrong. But his silence about terrorism seemed like support for terrorism.
..... Meanwhile, some uncomfortable truths emerged.
..... For example, Khalil tired to give ht impression that he wasn't really all that involved with the tent camp where Hamas slogs were displayed. But wait: Wasn't that Khalil on video dancing with the campers?
..... Khalil t4ried to explain that he was not leaning protests, merely acting as the negotiator and spokesman for an allegedly peaceful coalition known as Columbia University. Apartheid Dives, or CIAD. But wait: Wasn't CUAD behind the jihadist=like call for the "total eradication of Western civilization" that was part of the Columbia protest? And wasn't CUAD also circulation leaflets that called for "death to America"? and wasn't Khalil, again caught on video. offering instructions will a bullhorn when students recently broke into buildings at Columbia's Barard College?
..... And, finally, while Khalil claims eh did not advocate violence, wasn't he front and center at rallies where antisemitic leaflets with Hamas symbols were circulated, including on a Jewish a Nazi-like bout stepping on a Jewish Star of David? And wasn't he leading a march where protesters invoked the "river to the sea' chant that is largely viewed as code for destroying Israel and which the U.S. House of representatives condemned as antisemitic in a re resolution sponsored by representative Josh Gotheimer, the New Jersey Democrat?
..... And, perahps most damaging, wasn't that Khalil at the center of a protest rally with an ominous theme - to "bring the ware home" to America? What ever that means, you can be sure, Khalil wasn't talking about hosting a respectful university seminar where both sides talked peacefully. Such rhetoric echoed similar statements by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida followers before the 9/11 attacks.
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Khalil's supporters are now trying to claim that he was only exercising his First Amendment rights to expression and should not be held accountable for the misdeeds of all protesters - or even words that seem like terrorist-like threats. Ultimately, however, the dark world of Hamas and its rhetoric caught up with him. He never learned to draw a line with murder and bigotry.
..... Khalil was arrested on a Saturday evening [03/15/2025] as he and his wife returned to their Columbia-owned apartment from a Ramadan dinner. Federal agents handcuffed him and hustled him out of New York City, first to New Jersey, then to an immigration detention center in Louisiana. On Wednesday, [03/19/2025] a federal judge in New York city blocked Khalil's deportation until a hearing can take place before another federal judge in New Jersey where his lawyers can argue whether his arrest violated the Constitution. Meanwhile, he reportedly will stay at a federal detention center in Louisiana.
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Khalil is not charge with a crime. instead, Trump administration claimed he tacitly supported Hamas and antisemitism. As a result, Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited a realty invalided federal law that allows the deportation of a non-citizen whose words or actions are deemed a threat to U.S. foreign policy.
..... In case you wondered, the U.S. has labeled Hamas a terrorists threat. It's probably not a good idea for non-citizens with green cards to speak favorably about terrorists. unless, of course, the want to be kicked out of America.
..... Khalil's followers seem lived at his potential deportation. They even protested in the lobby of Trump Towner. Meanwhile, his lawyer have asked a federal judge to intervene. Khalil's wife is eight-months pregnant, and he wants to be home for the birth of their first child. Gee, didn't he think of what his home life might be like before that rally with its non-too-subtle threat to "bring the war home?"
..... In the end, maybe it will take the U.S. Supreme Court to decide Khalil;s fate. But the wold now knows who he is.
..... He had a chance to tell the truth about Hamas and stand up to antisemitism at Columbia. he blow it.