Thousands marched in New York City and demonstrated at the mayor’s residence to protest the arrest and green card revocation of an anti-Israel activist for his support of terrorist organizations.
Activists gathered on Tuesday outside the Gracie Mansion to pressure for the release of Columbia University Apartheid Divest leading member Mahmoud Khalil, who had been arrested on Saturday evening.
Within Our Lifetime sought to disrupt Mayor Eric Adams’s iftar dinner, with the anti-Israel group claiming that it was a “sham” and “disgraceful photo-op” that needed to be disrupted.
WOL said on X/Twitter that Adams had attempted to change the location of the dinner to hide, but “we refused to let him use our faith and traditions for political cover.”
“Republicans you can’t hide! You get rich off genocide! Columbia you can’t hide! You get rich off genocide! Democrats you can’t hide! You get rich off genocide!” activists chanted in a WOL video.
Masked activists clashed with police, according to Freedom News TV, with the protesters pushing back barricades that officers had erected.
Earlier in the day, thousands marched through the city, waving Palestinian flags from the area of Washington Square Park to Broadway. The NYPD said multiple people had been arrested, with 11 being released with summons for disorderly conduct.
“We’re in the streets with tens of thousands of New Yorkers who’ve come from all across the city to demand the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil,” said an activist in a Palestinian Youth Movement NYC Instagram video.
“Mahmoud was illegally abducted by DHS agents, he is being held in ICE detention and this is a clear attempt on the part of the Trump administration to suppress the movement for Palestine and strip us of our rights of speech and due process.”
City University of New York for Palestine said on social media that several activists had been arrested during the protests, which had originally been called by National Students for Justice in Palestine to challenge the federal government’s Friday cancellation of $400 million in Grants to Columbia University over campus antisemitism.
The call to action by NSJP, WOL, and PYM did not manifest into widespread campus takeovers the groups had urged, but sporadic protests occurred outside of New York.
Stanford SJP held a walkout at White Plaza in support of Khalil, with one student being temporarily detained by local law enforcement after allegedly being misidentified as an “outside agitator.”
Other actions
Khalil’s arrest has inspired a number of other actions, such as the Columbia University Alumni for Palestine urging supporters on Instagram Tuesday to contact the administration and demand they keep ICE agents off the campus. Interim President Katrina Armstrong said in a Monday statement that the administration had not requested the presence of ICE on the campus, and was following the law regarding warrants.
An Action Network petition calling for Khalil’s release had been signed by almost three million people. The petition argued that Khalil had been targeted for his “Palestinian identity and outspoken activism on multiple occasions over the last 17 months.”
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and 29 other city officials, state representatives, and congresspeople issued a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem urging the release of Khalil, also describing the event as a suppression of free speech and rights.
With a hearing on Khalil’s case set to be held at the Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, the People’s Forum and other groups called for activists to rally outside the courthouse to show support for the detainee.
“The time is now to take to the streets to reaffirm our right to protest Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people,” the People’s Forum said on X.
