Palestinian activist Khalil returns to Columbia after US detention

Mahmoud Khalil, a figurehead of Gaza war protests in the United States, returned Tuesday to Columbia University for the first time since his 2025 arrest under President Donald Trump's crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists.

The 31-year-old told AFP his presence for an event on his new memoir, attended by around 100 people, was a "victory," as he accused Columbia of seeking "to erase me, to erase any Palestinian voices on campus."

He has slammed the Ivy League institution for its response to the 2024 student demonstrations, which included allowing New York police to clear protesters from its Manhattan campus in a heavy-handed operation.

Columbia said at the time the protests were a safety threat.

Khalil has also accused the university of failing to protect him from harassment ahead of his arrest by US immigration authorities and three-month detention without criminal charge, before his release in June 2025.

"Columbia could have been an example for how to have difficult conversations on campus, how to respond to such a protest, how to be aligned with human rights and with international law," Khalil told AFP in an interview.

"They chose the total opposite. They chose brutality. They chose repression," he said.

Some Jewish groups on social media had opposed Khalil's return. A spokesperson for Columbia said the college is "committed to rigorous debate, inquiry, and respectful dialogue across differing perspectives."

"Columbia supports the right of faculty members to organize academic events. An invitation to speak does not signify university endorsement of a speaker’s views," they said in a statement carried by US media.

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