"Jewish groups targeted Columbia grad Mahmoud Khalil — then ICE arrested him"
From Jewish Daily Forward
I’m increasingly thinking that the Trump administration’s attacks on free speech (including the ICE arrest of Mahmoud Khalil) is not something the Trumpers are doing for the Jews but rather to foment antisemitism.
Think about it. Trump’s attack on free speech and threats to deport student critics of Israel stands out as being the one exercise of free speech (so far) that Trump is acting on. Mahmoud Khalil was grabbed at his home because he was, supposedly, the leading Columbia University opponent of Israel’s war on Gaza.
The message is, thus far, that Americans can still say what they want or agitate against any of the other 195 countries in the world (including this one) but not Israel. And the idiots pushing for this rewrite of the First Amendment to essentially add the words “but none of these free speech protections apply to Israel” are rightwing Jews and Jewish organizations, people and organizations almost totally out of step with the Jewish community at large.
Does it not occur to the Trumpers and their supporters in the Jewish organizations that this makes Jews look terrible and additionally makes America look like the Jews enslave it as the likes of Tucker Carlson and his equivalents on the extreme left are saying all the time?
Of course it does. Trump and the Trumpers are instigating antisemitism in the name of protecting Jews to the extent of rounding up innocent Palestinians as a gift to us.
Why would they do that? Why not? Instigating hate and dividing people from one another is the one thing he and his supporters do well. And if it leads to violence against Jews, Palestinians or any other of their ilk, all the better.
What else could Trump be intending when he joyously announces the deportation scheme against Mahmoud Khalil with the word “Shalom,” which he probably learned a day or two ago to get across the point that he was doing this for the Jews.
I don’t mean to exonerate the Israel lobby (AIPAC, ADL, American Jewish Committee, etc) for inciting against Palestinians. That is the main thing they do these days.
I am just saying that Trump’s targeting of Palestinians is not something he is doing for the Jews but rather to the Jews and Palestinians both. It’s sick, as is everything related to the American position on the Gaza war and Palestinians. But this: trying to deport people who are guilty of nothing more than opposing the Gaza war and, heaven forbid, not liking Israel, is a new low. Don’t fall for it. Just fight it.
-EXCERPTS from FORWARD, an increasingly fine Jewish website. LINK.
Documenting Jew Hatred on Campus called to #DeportMahmoudKhalil days before immigration agents detained him
‘Shalom’ becomes new ‘You’re fired’ as Trump takes drastic action at Columbia
State Department plan to deport ‘pro-Hamas’ students relies on a 1952 law that targeted Jews
Opinion | Trump’s Columbia attacks won’t stop antisemitism. So why are Jewish leaders applauding?
Among the dozens of masked protesters at Barnard College’s library last week, Mahmoud Khalil stood out because his face was bare. In video clips from the demonstration posted online, Khalil is seen testing a megaphone and speaking to a reporter.
Khalil, who is 30 and received a master’s degree in December from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, is also a foreign national, making him a perfect target for pro-Israel activists who have been calling on the Trump administration to deport students involved in protesting the war in Gaza….
Ross Glick, a pro-Israel activist who previously shared a list of campus protesters with federal immigration authorities, said that he was in Washington, D.C., for meetings with members of Congress during the Barnard library demonstration and discussed Khalil with aides to Sens. Ted Cruz and John Fetterman who promised to “escalate” the issue. He said that some members of Columbia’s board had also reported Khalil to officials. [MJ here: Fetterman and Cruz are among the top recipients of AIPAC money and are, in return, viciously anti-Palestinian].
Spokespeople for Cruz and Fetterman did not immediately respond to inquiries about the case. The Department of Homeland Security, the agency that detained Khalil, referred questions about his arrest to the White House, which taunted Khalil in a social media post Monday reading: “Shalom Mahmoud.”
MORE FROM JTA (formerly Jewish Telegraphic Agency). LINK.
A growing number of Jewish groups are condemning Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest
President Donald Trump cheered the arrest, and the White House tweeted, “SHALOM, MAHMOUD.”
Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist at Columbia who was arrested by ICE in March 2025, speaking to media. (Screenshot)
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By Ben Sales March 10, 2025 5:41 pm
Liberal Jewish groups joined the chorus condemning the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian protest leader at Columbia University who was detained by ICE and threatened with deportation.
The statements came amid a cascade of condemnation and protest Monday from Democratic politicians and progressive groups.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, hailed the arrest and pledged to deport Khalil, a recent Columbia graduate and legal resident who holds a green card.
Khalil is a leader of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a hardline group that has taken a central role in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. Multiple progressive Jewish groups that supported or defended those protests — including Jewish Voice for Peace, Bend the Arc and IfNotNow — condemned Khalil’s arrest as an authoritarian action.
But those groups are being joined by a number of liberal Jewish organizations that previously criticized pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia, or that have expressed concern about antisemitism at anti-Israel protests. While a number of pro-Israel groups praised or welcomed the arrest, at least two liberal Zionist organizations, J Street and Zioness, have expressed alarm over it.
Zioness, J Street and several other liberal Jewish groups, like a wide array of Democratic politicians, say they’re concerned by the legal implications of detaining and trying to deport a lawful resident of the United States based on his protest activity. That tactic, several worried, could come to also be used against Jews, as it has elsewhere.
“Jews & our communal institutions have always fought to protect civil rights & civil liberties – including free speech, even when totally disgusted by the content – because societies with those protections are the only ones in which we, as a tiny minority community, can ever be safe,” Zioness said in a statement, adding that it viewed Khalil as a “raging antisemite” who probably should have been expelled from Columbia.
“We must defend US Constitution without defending Khalil’s vile, antisemitic, anti-American ideology,” the statement added. “Rule of law matters most when things are complicated, not when they’re simple. Any extra-legal tools used ‘for us’ can be turned against us. We should assume they will.”
J Street U, the liberal Israel lobby’s college arm, said it “does not endorse Khalil’s actions or positions,” but added, “We are appalled by the dangerous precedent set by his arrest. Our community can and must stand up for constitutional rights for all, even those with whom we may strongly disagree.”
Other groups — including the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the New York Jewish Agenda, New Jewish Narrative and the Nexus Project — echoed those concerns.
“The Trump administration is exploiting real concerns about antisemitism to undercut democracy,” Amy Spitalnick, JCPA’s CEO, said in a statement. “Any Jew who thinks this is going to start and stop with a few Palestinian activists is fooling themselves.”
The Nexus statement, while expressing concern about antisemitism and the tome of campus protests, said, “Authoritarian federal overreach and apparent disregard for due process only makes Jews less safe.” NYJA likewise condemned campus antisemitism but added, regarding Khalil’s arrest, “This kind of authoritarian action is incompatible with our vision for immigrant rights and a pluralistic democracy.”
Rep. Jerry Nadler, a pro-Israel Jewish Democrat who has represented parts of Manhattan for more than three decades, said he was monitoring the situation but condemned the arrest. “The warrantless arrest of any legal permanent resident seemingly solely over their speech is a chilling, McCarthyesque action in response to the exercise of first amendment rights to free speech,” he wrote, adding that it “will not make Jewish students safer on campus.”
And Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said her group was “deeply concerned about antisemitism and protests on college campuses. But deporting legal residents from our country without due process because we disagree with their views is un-American and will make neither Jews nor our democracy more secure.”
Those criticisms came as Trump was cheering the arrest, crediting an executive order he signed in January that raised the possibility of deporting foreign students who support terrorism. He said more students would face the same punishment.
“Following my previously signed Executive Orders, ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University,” Trump posted on social media. “This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.”
The White House’s X account shared the post, adding, in all caps, “SHALOM, MAHMOUD.”
Meanwhile, protests against the arrest are mounting across the city and beyond. Two separate ones were scheduled for Monday in separate Manhattan locations, one at Federal Plaza downtown, and the other, organized by IfNotNow, near Columbia uptown.
At least half of the 10 Democrats running for mayor have condemned the arrest. On Monday, state Attorney General Letitia James said she was “extremely concerned about the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil, an advocate and legal permanent resident of Palestinian descent.”
A series of Democratic officials in addition to Nadler have condemned the arrest. An X account representing Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee said the arrest should “terrify everyone.”
And the condemnations were joined by a particularly unexpected voice — the far-right pundit Ann Coulter.
“There’s almost no one I don’t want to deport, but, unless they’ve committed a crime, isn’t this a violation of the first amendment?” she wrote.