Mahmoud Khalil in suit demands Trump admin reveal contact with orgs targeting Israel critics
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It says that in the months leading to his March arrest, groups including Betar and Canary Mission subjected him and other international student activists to “an ugly campaign” that included sharing his address online, slandering his advocacy for Palestinians as antisemitic and supportive of terrorism, and tagging Trump officials in online posts calling for his deportation.
“After the Trump administration took office and emboldened by their access to high-level administration officials, these groups engaged in an effort to get Mr. Khalil arrested and deported precisely because those groups sought to silence him and deter others from speaking out against an unfolding genocide in Gaza,” the suit reads.
In the wake of Khalil’s arrest, Betar US, which the Anti-Defamation League classifies as an extremist organization, told the Guardian that it had submitted a “deportation list” to Trump officials naming thousands of students who had protested against Israel.
Khalil graduated from Columbia with a master’s in international diplomacy in May. In 2023 and 2024, he played a prominent role in campus protests against the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, launched in response to the Hamas terror attack of Oct. 7, 2023. The 30-year-old, a Palestinian born in a refugee camp in Syria, who is married to a U.S. citizen, was targeted for deportation in March, despite his status as a green card holder.
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https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/11/20/mahmoud-khalil-in-suit-demands-trump-admin-reveal-contact-with-orgs-targeting-israel-critics/