American Jews protested in the lobby of Trump Tower in solidarity with Palestinian student Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University in New York, the United States. The protest was organized by an American Jewish organization on Thursday. Police later arrested 98 protesters.
Protests have been taking place across the United States since US immigration authorities arrested Mahmud Khalil last Saturday. Yesterday’s protest was one such event.
Mahmoud Khalil is a Palestinian citizen and his wife is a US citizen. He played a key role in the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University last year, for which the administration of US President Donald Trump wants to deport him.
But Khalil’s lawyers and supporters say the Trump administration is deliberately conflating criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza with support for “terrorism.” The arrest has been strongly condemned by various civil society organizations, who have called Khalil a “political prisoner.”
Protest leaders said yesterday they had chosen Trump Tower, the high-rise building that houses the Trump Organization and Trump’s personal residence in New York, to deliver a message to the president.
The protest was organized by an American Jewish organization called Jewish Voice for Peace. In a post on social media, the organization said, “We have taken over Trump Tower to make it known that as Jews, we collectively reject this.”
The post referred to the Trump-led government as fascist and added, “We will not remain silent when attempts are made to criminalize Palestinians and those calling for an end to the Israeli government’s US-funded genocide against the Palestinian people, and we will never stop fighting for an independent Palestine.”