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L'institut Canadien de Recherches sur le Judaisme

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As ICE Arrests Mahmoud Khalil, Some Jews Ask If This Is the Fight They Signed Up For

New York City rally protests 70 years of Nakba and support… | Flickr
New York City rally protests 70 years of Nakba and support… | Flickr

Andrew Silow-Carroll/JTA

Jerusalem Post, Mar. 11, 2025

“While conceding that Khalil deserves “due process protections,” the Anti-Defamation League was fast out of the gate with a statement saying that they “hope that his action serves as a deterrent to others who might consider breaking the law on college campuses.”

The campus pro-Palestinian protests that erupted after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks united many Jewish students, parents and “defense” groups in a national fight against antisemitism, intimidation and the disruption of university life.

But as the Trump administration has taken up the cause with gusto — most recently arresting, detaining and threatening to deport a Columbia University graduate and green card holder who led some of the most disruptive protests — some Jews are asking: Is this the fight we signed up for?

“Antisemitism is on the rise, and we should take that very seriously, but we are not going to be able to arrest and deport our way out of the serious problem of antisemitism,” Udi Ofer, the former deputy national political director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in an interview. “Attempting to deport green card holders for their student advocacy is the kind of action we normally associate with repressive regimes.”

Over the weekend, the administration having previously frozen $400 million of grants to Columbia over its mishandling of antisemitism on campus, immigration officers arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of pro-Palestinian activism at the school. Khalil, a Syria-born Palestinian who is in the country legally, was taken into custody at his apartment in a Columbia-owned building; his wife, who is eight months pregnant, was also threatened with arrest. …SOURCE

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