Mahmoud Khalil Returns to Columbia and Says Palestinian Activism Is Changing US Politics

Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil returned to Columbia University on Tuesday for the first time since his arrest in March 2025, saying student advocacy has changed how Americans see Palestinians and has pushed a new generation of leaders to reconsider their positions on Israel.

Khalil, 31, a Columbia graduate, was in New York to discuss his new memoir, No Land to Stand On: Notes from Detention. He was arrested on March 8, 2025. About 100 people attended the event, which he described as a "victory."

In an interview with the AFP news agency, Khalil said the public mood is shifting. "The American public is finally changing, is finally looking at the Palestinian as an equal human," he said.

He also pointed to electoral results as evidence of that change. "Also, we can see on the ground that we have more progressive candidates being elected into US Congress and positions of power," Khalil said. He named Dr Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for the US Senate in Michigan, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as examples.

Khalil was a leading figure in the student demonstrations at Columbia in 2024, which became the epicentre of campus protests across the United States against Israel's war in Gaza. He was later detained by immigration authorities during a federal crackdown on foreign student activists. He was held for three months without criminal charge, even though he holds permanent US residency. He was released from immigration custody on June 20, 2025, but the Trump administration continues to pursue his deportation.

His return was not welcomed by everyone. Some Jewish groups on social media opposed the visit. A Columbia spokesperson responded that the university is "committed to rigorous debate, inquiry, and respectful dialogue across differing perspectives." The statement, carried by US media, added that Columbia supports the right of faculty members to organize academic events and that "an invitation to speak does not signify university endorsement of a speaker's views."

Khalil, for his part, accused the university's leadership of trying "to erase me, to erase any Palestinian voices on campus." He has repeatedly criticized how Columbia handled the protests, including its decision to authorize the New York Police Department to clear demonstrators from the Manhattan campus. "They chose brutality. They chose repression," he told AFP. Columbia said at the time that the demonstrations posed a safety threat. Khalil also says the university failed to protect him from harassment before his detention.

Despite the legal uncertainty, Khalil said part of his struggle is about returning to an ordinary life. "A big part of my fight is like fighting for normalcy," he said, describing a wish to go back to being a young father who takes his son to the park with his wife, undisturbed.

He framed the broader stakes in terms of free expression. "My fight is not only about whether I get to stay in this country," Khalil said. "It is about whether, you know, people in this country can speak their minds."