Mahmoud Khalil speaks to members of media about the Revolt for Rafah encampment at Columbia University during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza, in New York City, US, June 1, 2024. Photo: Jeenah Moon via Reuters Connect

Mahmoud Khalil, an anti-Israel activist and former Columbia University graduate student, refused to condemn the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas during an appearance on CNN on Tuesday.

In the contentious interview, Khalil sidestepped repeated questions about Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, in which Palestinian terrorists murdered about 1,200 people and kidnapped over 250 hostages while perpetrating mass sexual violence.

When pressed by CNN host Pamela Brown whether he would repudiate the group’s mass murder, Khalil said, “I condemn the killing of all civilians — full stop.”

When asked again whether he would condemn Hamas, Khalil deflected, saying that he is “very clear with condemning killing of all civilians.” He then said that it is “disingenuous to ask about condemning Hamas while Palestinians are being starved by Israel.” Khalil urged the anchors to address the “root causes” of the Oct. 7 massacre.

Khalil also toured Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on Tuesday to meet with Democratic members of Congress and share his testimony. Khalil, who gained prominence for spearheading raucous anti-Israel campus protests, held a series of closed-door meetings with several prominent liberal politicians. Many of the lawmakers who met with Khalil are among the most critical voices against Israel on Capitol Hill. 

Though the details of the meetings have not been disclosed, several members of Congress who met with Khalil defended student free speech rights and urged an immediate end to the ongoing war in Gaza. 

“​​Students continue to be wrongfully disciplined for exercising their First Amendment rights and protesting a taxpayer-funded genocide in Gaza. Our institutions shouldn’t fuel an authoritative regime by suppressing dissent, and we must continue fighting back,” Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) posted on X.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) described Khalil as a “kind, gentle soul who cares deeply about others’ humanity.”

“I look forward to remaining in contact with Mahmoud as we continue work to center the humanity of families in Gaza, address the unjust and unlawful targeting of students exercising their right to free speech, and protect the fundamental, constitutional rights of everyone who calls this country home,” Pressley posted on social media.

Khalil, a Syrian native and Algerian national who came to the US in 2022, was one of the leaders of the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia University last year, when activists illegally seized parts of the campus and refused to leave unless the school boycotted the world’s lone Jewish state. He was detained by the Trump administration in March after federal agents arrested him at his Manhattan apartment for what the Homeland Security Department described as “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” The State Department also alleged that Khalil was supporting Hamas.

The activist was held without charge for more than 100 days at an ICE [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] facility in Louisiana, where he was reportedly denied access to legal counsel and separated from his newborn son. A federal judge ordered his release in June, ruling that the government failed to prove he posed a threat and suggesting the detention may have violated his First Amendment rights.

Khalil also met with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), one of the most strident critics of Israel in Congress. 

“I met with Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student at Columbia University, who was imprisoned for 104 days by the Trump administration for opposing Netanyahu’s illegal & horrific war in Gaza. Outrageous,” Sanders wrote, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We must not allow Trump to destroy the First Amendment & freedom to dissent.”

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Pro-Palestinian protesters are detained by NYPD after taking part in a demonstration at Butler Library on the Columbia University campus in New York, US, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dana Edwards

Columbia University has imposed severe disciplinary sanctions — including degree revocation — on upwards of 70 students who perpetrated an illegal seizure of campus property during the final weeks of the academic year and refused to surrender it unless school officials acceded to a list of five demands which, among other things, called for a boycott of Israel and divestment from armaments manufacturers.

As reported by the New York Post on Tuesday, a school official told the paper that Columbia on Monday expelled a “handful” of students and suspended “dozens” of others who stormed and occupied Butler Library on May 7, an action which resulted in two Columbia private security officers being assaulted when a crush of students attempted to breach a human barrier they had formed to prevent additional protesters from joining, and thereby strengthening, the demonstration.

Without stating the number of punishments meted out to the students, Columbia University confirmed the main contention of the Post’s reporting — while announcing one disciplinary measure, degree revocation, to which it was not privy — on Tuesday in an unsigned statement.

“The sanctions issued on July 21 by the University Judicial Board were determined by a UJB panel of professors and administrators who worked diligently over the summer to offer an outcome for each individual based on the findings of their case and prior disciplinary outcomes,” the university said, stressing that the punishments resulted from a consensus reached by officials representing every level of the university. “While the university does not release individual disciplinary results of any student, the sanctions from Butler Library include probation, suspensions (ranging from one year to three years), degree revocations, and expulsions.”

During the May protests, events forced president Claire Shipman — the school’s third new chief executive in two years — to summon the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to Butler Library after negotiations with the protesters to end the occupation hit an impasse, a decision Shipman later justified in a statement as “necessary” for preserving Columbia’s academic mission. The NYPD quickly completed its operation to clear Butler after arriving there during the early evening. Bundling the protesters “20 at a time,” as described by the Columbia Daily Spectator, the officers transferred the students to an NYPD bus used for mass arrests.

On Tuesday, Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), chairman of the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce, commended Columbia University for penalizing misconduct, a step the institution has allegedly eschewed in the past.

“Columbia has more progress to make before Jewish students can truly feel safe on its campus,” Walberg said in a statement. “The committee’s work has underscored the depth and breadth of antisemitism at Columbia that can’t be ignored. We will continue to investigate antisemitism at Columbia and other universities and develop legislative solutions to address this persistent problem. Our nation’s institutions of higher education must fulfill their legal obligations under federal antidiscrimination law.”

Meanwhile, the group behind the protest and many others which have disrupted academic life at Columbia since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel issued a statement charging that the university’s trustees are conspiring with Jewish organizations and the Trump administration to promote “their Zionist agenda.” The statement concluded by threatening further actions of “struggle,” which were left undefined.

“The sanctions are believed to be part of a federal deal Columbia is about the announce that includes a formal partnership with the zionist [sic] Anti-Defamation League and an agreement to use the [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s] definition of antisemitism, which equates criticism of Israel with discrimination against Jews,” a non-recognized group which calls itself Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) said in a press release. “The disciplinary letters demand suspended students submit apologies in order to return to campus in one to three years, which some students have stated they will refuse. If those protesters hold their ground by refusing to apologize, the suspensions will convert into de facto expulsions and the number of permanent sanctions will skyrocket.”

Earlier this month, Columbia University announced a series of reforms to address campus antisemitism amid its negotiating a deal to pay $200 million to settle allegations that it exposed Jewish students and faculty to discrimination.

In a statement, Shipman said the university will hire new coordinators to oversee complaints alleging civil rights violations; facilitate “deeper education on antisemitism” by creating new training programs for students, faculty, and staff; and adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism — a tool that advocates say is necessary for identifying what constitutes antisemitic conduct and speech.

Shipman also announced new partnerships with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other civil rights groups while delivering a major blow to the anti-Zionist movement on campus by vowing never to “recognize or meet with” CUAD.

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Columbia University’s campus has yielded some of the most indelible examples of anti-Jewish hatred in higher education since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel set off explosions of anti-Zionist activity at colleges and universities across the US. Such incidents included a student who proclaimed that Zionist Jews deserve to be murdered and are lucky he is not doing so himself and administrative officials who, outraged at the notion that Jews organized to resist anti-Zionism, participated in a group chat in which each member took turns sharing antisemitic tropes that described Jews as privileged and grafting.

Amid these incidents, the university struggled to contain CUAD, which in late January committed infrastructural sabotage by flooding the toilets of the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) with concrete. Numerous reports indicate the attack may have been the premeditated result of planning sessions which took place many months ago at an event held by Alpha Delta Phi (ADP) — a literary society, according to the Washington Free Beacon. During the event, ADP reportedly distributed literature dedicated to “aspiring revolutionaries” who wish to commit seditious acts. Additionally, a presentation was given in which complete instructions for the exact kind of attack which struck Columbia were shared with students.

In September, during the university’s convocation ceremony, CUAD distributed literature calling on students to join Hamas’s movement to destroy Israel.

“This booklet is part of a coordinated and intentional effort to uphold the principles of the thawabit and the Palestinian resistance movement overall by transmitting the words of the resistance directly,” one of the pamphlets given to freshmen students said. “This material aims to build popular support for the Palestinian war of national liberation, a war which is waged through armed struggle.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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Beate Meinl-Reisinger (M), Foreign Minister of Austria, receives Johann Wadephul (CDU, l), Federal Foreign Minister of Germany, and Gideon Saar, Foreign Minister of Israel, at the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs of the Republic of Austria. Photo: Katharina Kausche/dpa via Reuters Connect

Those seeking citizenship in the East German state of Brandenburg must now acknowledge the right of Israel to exist.

René Wilke, minister of the interior and for municipal affairs of Brandenburg, told the state parliament in Potsdam on Thursday about the policy, which had gone into effect on June 1 for people seeking naturalization and passports. Wilke clarified that while the policy intended to demonstrate German solidarity with Israel, it would not provide a free pass for the Jewish state, warning that not all Israeli actions will receive support.

“This is a commitment to the right of the State of Israel to exist,” the minister said. “It is not a commitment that everything any head of government in Israel has ever done and will ever do will also receive solidarity and approval.”

Andreas Büttner, who serves as antisemitism commissioner for Brandenburg, advocated for the policy.

“Israel is the promise of protection and self-determination,” Büttner said, according to German media. “Anyone who attacks Israel is attacking this promise.”

However, not all leaders in Brandenburg support the prerequisite for citizenship.

Friederike Benda, state leader of the leftist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance party (BSW), pushed back, labeling the move “a slap in the face for democracy.”

“While Brandenburg is calling for a commit to peaceful coexistence between peoples and against wars of aggression, the German government continues to supply weapons to an Israeli government that is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip and has attacked Iran in violation of international law. That is hypocrisy!” Benda wrote on Facebook.

The new citizenship policy required affirmation of other German values, including support for democracy and the country’s Constitution as well as recognition of the Nazis’ atrocities and the importance of protecting Jewish life. Applicants must also reject bigamy and wars of aggression. The laws have tightened in economic and national security terms too, now requiring potential citizens to show they will not rely on welfare, can speak the German language, and have not committed crimes in previous countries.

The German state of Saxony-Anhalt introduced a similar measure in 2023 linking naturalization to a recognition of Israel’s right to exist.

Berlin could be next, according to the German capital’s governing mayor, Kai Wegner.

“Personally, I can well imagine including the recognition of Israel’s right to exist as a prerequisite for naturalization,” Wegener told the German publication Tagesspiegel this past weekend.

Germany has experienced a sharp spike in antisemitism since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct.7, 2023, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.

The number of antisemitic incidents in Germany almost doubled last year, the semi-official German body that tracks antisemitism reported last month.

The Federal Research and Information Point for Antisemitism (RIAS) said it had registered 8,627 incidents of violence, vandalism, and threats against Jews in Germany, almost twice the 4,886 recorded in 2023, and far ahead of 2020’s 1,957. Approximately 25 percent of total outrages last year featured what the report described as “anti-Israel antisemitism.”

“Objectively, the risk of being persecuted as a Jew in Germany has increased since Oct. 7, 2023,” Benjamin Steinitz, head of RIAS told a press briefing when the figures were released. “But debates about what counts as an expression of antisemitism seem to take up more space than empathy for the victims.”

In Berlin specifically, the number of antisemitic incidents in just the first six months of 2024 alone surpassed the total for all of the prior year and reached the highest annual count on record, according to separate figures from RIAS.

The figures in Berlin were the highest count for a single year since the federally-funded body began monitoring antisemitic incidents in 2015, showing the German capital averaged nearly eight anti-Jewish outrages a day from January to June last year.

However, experts believe that the true number of incidents is much higher but not recorded because of reluctance on the part of the victims.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told Fox News in June that immigration had increased antisemitism.

“We are doing everything we can to bring these numbers down,” Merz said. “We are prosecuting those who are against the law. And frankly, we have a sort of imported antisemitism with the big numbers of migrants we have within the last 10 years, and we have to tackle this and we have to resolve this problem.”

In February, Berlin police arrested a Syrian refugee for allegedly stabbing a tourist at a Holocaust memorial. He reportedly told the officers he wanted “to kill Jews.”

Merz said he wanted “to make it very clear” that Germany’s government and “the vast majority of the German parliament” opposed antisemitism.

“We are doing everything we can to bring these numbers down,” Merz said.

In May, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul warned that the country’s longstanding support for Israel had its limits.

“Our committed fight against antisemitism and our full support for the right to exist and the security of the state of Israel must not be instrumentalized for the conflict and the warfare currently being waged in the Gaza Strip,” Wadephul said. “We are now at a point where we have to think very carefully about what further steps to take.”

In April, Germany deported four pro-Hamas demonstrators — three European Union citizens and one US citizen — on the basis that they posed a “threat to public order.”

On Feb. 23, Merz — then a candidate for chancellor — expressed his support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting the country without fear of arrest in response to an International Criminal Court warrant.

“I think it is a completely absurd idea that an Israeli prime minister cannot visit the Federal Republic of Germany,” Merz said, revealing that he had told Netanyahu they “would find ways and means for him to visit Germany and leave again without being arrested.” Merz said he would support such a visit “in defiance of the scandalous International Criminal Court decision to label the prime minister a war criminal.”

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