Anti-Israel Columbia College protester Mahmoud Khalil has referred to as himself a “political prisoner” — whereas urging college students to reply with much more protests.
“My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner,” Khalil stated in a fiery letter written from his Louisiana immigration detention facility.
Khalil, head of the hardline pro-Palestinian group Columbia College Apartheid Divest, referred to as 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 getting “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 much 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.”
