The Arrest of Mahmoud Khalil

And what it appears to represent

4/14/24: The Intercept is producing the best coverage, including a link to the text of the two-page “reason to believe” letter from Marco Rubio, which has not reason, just believe. How is this due process? The article states, however, this may be a long drawn out process in both Immigration Court and other courts. I fear it won’t be…

4/10/25: Accorcding to The Intercept, the government yesterday produced zero information other than Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s vague assertion of antisemitism on Mahmoud’s part or that they think he supports Hamas. How outrageous, but the judge made clear earlier absent such evidenced of a reasonable belief on the government’s part, he should be released as early as Friday.

4/3/25: The only possible controversial element of the letter I signed is its pledge for non-cooperation with ADL. Today, ADL took this action, but this is just one of the many reasons, related to ADL’s ineffectiveness in combating anti-semitism, which motivated me to agree to that stance. They are basically targeting Jewish Voice for Peace, which as an organization does not take antisemitic positions. It has, however, co-sponsored events which allowed discourse whose anti-Israelism comes very close to antisemitism in my veiw, including this one coming up Saturday. At the last such march in DC, I listened to all of the video of the speakers and with one or two exceptions there were all very disciplined in avoiding antisemitism. But the larger question here is the ADL is supposed to be a civil rights organization, and free speech is part of that! ADL risks missing the boat which I feel is going to sail soon a grassroots movement on campuses to combine education and training on antisemitism (including what I call anti-ZionISTism) and anti-Palestinianism, anti-Arab chauvinism, and Islamophobia.

3/22/2025: See this important letter sent to all CU Jewish faculty just prior to the arrest of Mahmoud Khalili.

3/20/25: Haaretz article makes apt historical observation that in the early 1950s, the feds tried to paint Jews to the left of Truman as “aligned” with the Soviet union just like it is doing that to Palestinians now. Rights were violated willy nilly then. Did it turn out some individuals with current then or former then ties to the far left were in fact Soviet agents? Yes, but there was terrible damage to our democracy from the rights violations fought by National Emergency Civil Rights Mobilization in 1950, now called the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights. At the height of teh McCarthy period, social workers were among those fighting back against the Red Scare (and there was also a pink scare), which I’ve lectured about. Another group founded in that era was the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee headquarted in NYC and still operating in the 1970s. For several years in the 1950s it was staffed by Chauncey Alexander, MSW, later the first Executive Director of NASW (National Association of Social Workers, and somewhat a mentor of mine, along with my mentor Maryann Mahaffey of Detroit. Here is one of their posters, with art by Calder.

3/19/25: Protest at Harvard of Mahmoud’s arrest. Clearly, however, this issue is becoming bigger and bigger with for instance the action taken against the MD from Lebanon working at Brown University. See YouTube of CBS: “According to now-sealed court filings, Rasha Alawieh, MD, who is from Lebanon, and had an HB1 clearance to work at Brown was denied entry into the United States after Customs and Border Protection found images of Hezbollah fighters on her phone. Alawieh was granted an HB1 or work visa on March 11. On March 13, she flew into Boston's Logan Airport where CBP officials searched her phone and conducted an interview with her, court documents state.After the interview, the government stated it denied Alawieh's admission into the U.S. and revoked her visa. She was put on a flight back to Paris and is now in Lebanon.” Professor Michael Kennedy and others at Brown have expressed concern.

3/19/2025: Jewish Columbia alumni speak out per Haaretz (gift): 'We Refuse to Be Used' | Jewish Columbia Alumni Pen Letter Against 'Illegal' Detention of pro-Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil. A letter signed by 120 Jewish graduates of the Ivy League school accuses Trump of 'cynically exploiting Jewish feelings of vulnerability' to justify his assault on their alma mater. Another letter from a coalition of Jewish groups also expressed deep concern.

3/18/2025: Here is a letter from Mahmoud dictated on phone from detention in Louisiana. It is very sad and infuriating to read this, but of course there is one outrage after another emanating from Trump and his new ICE leader.

3/18/2025: Comments upon signing this letter yesterday: “I have been following the excellent material of the Boston area faculty group for some time. Upon seeing this letter, I gave it careful consideration, and read and saved all of the material. I have in the past already spoken out on about Mahmoud and am particularly upset as a Columbia University Alum (Social Work, 1980) and as an annual donor since that time, about the forced self-deportation of a doctoral student in Urban Planning. This must stop.”

3/17/2025: Earlier, I read this letter coming from Jewish faculty responding to the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, but had not had time to read its many links. A number of my political friends have friends who have signed it. It calls on university leaders to: To this end, we call on our university leaders to:

• Devote institutional resources to free Mahmoud Khalil and defend any other community member targeted by the Trump administration;

• Democratize university governance by enabling faculty, staff, and students to shape institutional budgetary, policy and other responses to the Trump administration’s attacks on our communities and institutions;

It links to these other pieces: Religion Dispatch’s Project 2025: How Trump Loyalists and Right-Wing Leaders Are Paving a Fast Road to Fascism; evidence of the Heritage Foundation’s planned and cynically named Project Esther: A National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism, an insult to have to read given the reading of the Book of Esther each Purim. That supports the statements reference to “and cynical claims of antisemitism.” It does not mean the signatories deny the problem of anti-semitism, or what I refer to as anti-ZionISTism and anti-Palestinianism on many campuses. It links to a NYTimes interview by Ross Douthat with Christopher Rufo a major leader of efforts to undermine teaching of critical race theory and of DEI-related content and other DEI related policies, about which I might add I teach regularly about and the literature related to which I have contributed via my widely cited work on microaggressions found under my Other Works link here. It links to a reliable NPR account of Mahmoud’s arrest. It provides evidence from X of the distasteful manner in which President Trump tweeted, “"We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again." –President Donald J. Trump,” and to add insult to injury, used the word Shalom in an insulting manner. It documented from The Guardian to this titular effect: “Trump calls arrest of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil ‘first of many to come’ President says in post his administration ‘will not tolerate’ actions of protesters at Columbia and other US universities.”

It links to a GLAAD site that criticizes Trump’s pardon of the January 6 participants. It documents via an article from the Jewish publication The Forward that “Internal Project Esther documents describe conspiracy of Jewish ‘masterminds’ seeking to dismantle Western values: A presentation meant to win supporters for the Heritage Foundation’s plan to fight antisemitism draws a line from George Soros to Antifa and pro-Palestinian protests.” Finally, it posts a statement from the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University: “As the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University aptly noted: “Universities must recognize that these actions pose an existential threat to academic life itself. They must make clear, through action, that they will not sit on the sidelines as the Trump administration terrorizes students and faculty alike and runs roughshod over individual rights and the rule of law.”

Yes, universities should find ways to promote the defense of its own students (or faculty) who are adversely impacted by this witch hunt. If our law schools can have clinics for the public, they should be able to find ways to support students and faculty (I’m not clear about ethics of representation, but where there is a will, there is a way, formally or informally). Yes, it is time to re-consider and strengthen faculty and student governance in our universities, and there is widespread discussion in higher education about these matters (see my beat on Academic Freedom of Inquiry and Expression.) As the statement says of the signatories: “We hold various views about Israel and Palestine, politics in the Middle East, and student activism on our campuses.” I have personally been quietly following the work of the issuing group Concerned Jewish Faculty for some time, but thought it was a local group, so was not active. But I have read their materials over time and found them valuable, and I think I have bookmarked and saved some of them in my other “beats.” It calls on signatories to:

• Cease any voluntary collaboration with federal immigration enforcement;

• Reject the dangerous narrative that pro-Palestinian advocacy, in which many Jews have participated, is presumptively anti-Jewish;

• Terminate all collaboration with organizations, such as the Anti-Defamation League, that smear our students and now applaud the lawless targeting of political opponents, and instead engage a variety of Jewish stakeholders to develop policies and programs that can meaningfully address antisemitism alongside all other forms of bigotry;

• Affirmatively defend every university member’s lawful right to engage in First Amendment protected activity without fear of internal or external punishment;

• Work collectively, across institutions, to resist the Trump administration’s feigned concerns about “Jewish safety” to smear, isolate and defund our universities and our communities.

These are all the things I have already been doing. The letter also links to this Blue Sky post, documenting ADL’s rash statement that totally disregards the ill-considered actions of the Trump administration and gives it cover, lamely saying it supports due process when it is very clear that not only has there been very little of that, even Jews ourselves could fall victim to Trump’s excesses. This is not an appropriate statement from ADL and is the final straw in terms of trust in the organization.

ADL’s actions in recent months in particular have not been ones I can support. It is very sad to see a group which should be a defender of all Jews fail to see that many Jews are among the very protestors who will no doubt be targeted by Trump’s measures. I may not agree with all of the actions such Jewish faculty and students, who work for Palestine solidarity, may take, or the words they use in doing so. And any reader of my substack and of my published work in the New York Times, two Jewish local newspapers, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, knows I have spoken out as a peace with justice activist, not in one-sided solidarity with either Israel or the five Gazan paramilitary groups which attacked Israel on 10/07/03. Thus, I wholeheartedly endorse and have signed this letter as #2047 of what I think should be many more. If not now, when? That is what we all must be asking ourselves within the Jewish community. When will we actually speak out, in general and specifically on the question of this letter?

3/15/2024: The Atlantic on The Kind of Things Dictators Do about Mahmoud. The author reveals that while other reports referred to him as a former student—and perhaps he is not enrolled now—he is/was scheduled to graduate this May and previous reports showed he still lived in CU housing.

3/14/2025: First they came for a former student, Mahmoud Khalil who has a green card and then a current doctoral student who according to New York Magazine studies Urban Planning and next according to The Guardian naturalized citizens? Count me as one of the Jews who does not think arresting Mahmound Khalil and these other things are how to combat the very real problems of growing anti-ZionISTism and anti-Palestinianism on our campuses and certainly not how to fight antisemitism generally. There are lots more like me, see this from the HuffPost.

FLASH! Leaders of The Jewish Federation and Jewish Community in Ann Arbor have issued this statement, per a reliable report, although it is not yet on the website here, it seems to be from individuals.

The CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor and a number of other leading Ann Arbor Jewish Community leaders including the Rabbi at Beth Israel just put out this statement re: the arrest of Khalil: Throughout history, we Jews have been silenced. Rarely in our 2,000 years of diaspora have we been able to publicly express our disdain for state policies without facing the wrath of our host countries. But not so in America. Since President Washington wrote to the Jews of Newport, expressing his hope that “...the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths,” we have been buoyed by the belief that America might be different—that here, we could be both fully American and fully Jewish. Our First Amendment rights are central to that possibility, and for that reason, we have been steadfast defenders of free speech for all.

It was for that reason that in 2018, the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor defended Richard Spencer’s right to speak at the University of Michigan, despite finding his speech bigoted, racist, and antisemitic. A society that silences speech is not safe for any of us. Tolerating speech we find reprehensible is not a concession—it is a fundamental principle of American democracy.

On Saturday, March 8th, Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and recent Columbia University graduate, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The administration explained its actions by stating that Mr. Khalil is “pro-terrorist, anti-semitic, anti-American.” Without due process, government agents claimed his green card had been revoked and sent him to a detention facility in Louisiana.

American Jews are rightfully concerned about the rise in antisemitism in our country and the role that campus protests have played in it. Legitimate claims of such must be addressed. If credible evidence exists that Mr. Khalil is aligned with Hamas or another designated terrorist organization, we would support appropriate lawful consequences. But due process and free speech are cornerstones of our democracy. Merely protesting, leading protests, or speaking out against the policies of the American government should not be grounds for deportation or revocation of legal status in the United States, nor should combatting antisemitism be used to justify actions that deny others their civil rights.

Jews and our communal institutions have always and will continue to fight to protect civil rights and civil liberties because societies with those protections are the only ones in which we, and other minority communities, can be safe.

Recently, Amy Spitalnick, CEO of Jewish Council for Public Affairs stated that “our community should not be used as an excuse to upend democracy & the rule of law,” and we concur. The Jewish community is not made safer by Mr. Khalil’s arrest. On the contrary, it is endangered by it. We know all too well from our own history: in places where speech is suppressed and due process not followed, Jews, too, will inevitably be silenced.

L'Shalom,

Eileen Freed, CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor

Rav Nadav Caine, Beth Israel Congregation

Rav Will Keller, Head of School, Hebrew Day School of Ann Arbor

Rabbi Gabrielle Pescador, Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation

Rabbi Josh Whinston, Temple Beth Emeth

All reactions:

31Jay Schaffner, Ruth Kraut and 29 others

3/12/2025: I have signed this petition from Justice Dems. I have written this letter to my Congresswoman:

“"Dear Congresswoman Brown: There is a great deal of heated rhetoric about the arrest of Mahmoud Khahlil but this is one letter I support and I hope you will take its message seriously and speak out if there is another sign-on letter from members of Congress: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25558083-sign-on-letter-to-dhs-regarding-mahmoud-khalil/. I do not blame you for not signing the more hurried letter of Rep. Tlaib, which even now is hard to find as a PDF but I did find it: https://media.wbur.org/wp/2025/03/letter-noem.pdf. The meeting of J Sreet at the Federation was packed with people to hear two important speakers; it is important to hear these messages for peace and for opposition to antisemitism and anti-Palestinianism.”

I have also responded to the Take Action link here from the Arab American Institute. Here is a press conference in NYC at which a member of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice spoke. I’m not about to sign the petition that generated over 3 million letters venting anger at “zionist harassment.” A misguided DSA statement urged signing it. As has the BDS Movement, which calls for this: “Broad-tent, intersectional coalitions against fascism, white supremacy, McCarthyism, colonial oppression, and unprecedented authoritarianism are needed now more than ever.” That may be so, but unwelcome in the kind of tent BDS proposes are voices from many of the most effective opponents of the occupation, including the Progressive Israel Network groups, who have strongly opposed anti-BDS laws and regulations despite non-support for BDS. That is not how to fight either civil rights violations or anti-Palestinianism. To understand Anti-ZionISTism and anti-Palestinianism as two edges of the same sword of intolerance, see my other beat and a draft essay within it.

Mike Dover