Palestinian protest leader says movement reshaping US politics

Mahmoud Khalil, who became the face of resistance to President Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian student activism, believes the movement has succeeded by shifting public perception and encouraging a generation of leaders ready to question views about Israel.

“The American public is finally changing, is finally looking at the Palestinian as an equal human,” the 31-year-old said in an interview with AFP one week before crucial midterm elections — and just as Israel held its own election.

Khalil rose to prominence when he helped lead demonstrations at New York’s Columbia University, the epicenter of protests against the war in Gaza that swept US campuses in 2024. 

At the height of Trump’s crackdown, immigration authorities responded by detaining Khalil — a permanent US resident born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria — for three months without criminal charge, making him miss the birth of his first child. 

But despite the personal toll — recounted in his memoir “No Land to Stand On: Notes from Detention” — Khalil credited Palestinian advocacy with helping to transform public opinion in the United States, where polls show historic growth in support for Palestinians.

“This gives me hope,” he said in his New York apartment.

“Also, we can see on the ground that we have more progressive candidates being elected into Congress and positions of power.”

Khalil pointed to Abdul El-Sayed, a Muslim running for US Senate in the key state of Michigan, as well as pro-Palestinian New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who was elected last year.

Both men are also notably critics of Israel — a move away from the traditional defense of the US ally among both Republicans and Democrats.

– ‘Work not done yet’ –

Khalil said that Trump sought to “chill” free speech on Palestinian rights with his arrest — which the president celebrated in a social media post, saying it was the first of many to come. 

“The Trump administration tried to dehumanize me for my advocacy for Palestine, for my opposition to the genocide in Gaza,” he said. 

“It was clear to me that this administration just wanted to make an example out of me, so people wouldn’t speak out for Palestine.”

The Trump administration says it is fighting anti-Semitism and illegal immigration, using both arguments to justify everything from controversial detentions of activists to defunding elite universities where pro-Palestinian protests took place.

Khalil said that strategy backfired.

“The fact that the president of the United States came after me, a random student, means that I was doing something right,” he added. 

– ‘Such cruelty’ –

Khalil’s ordeal also exposed him to conditions in a Louisiana jail he likened to torture, describing constant fluorescent light, cold, and poor food.

“I never imagined that such cruelty is happening on US soil,” Khalil said of the deportation drive led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

“I came to a country that supposedly champions liberty, justice, rule of law, only to be shocked when I entered these detention centers that all my rights were left outside,” he said. 

Khalil has been free for well over a year but the Trump administration is still pushing for his deportation even as he raises his son, now aged 18 months, in New York with his wife.

It’s an emotional cost that is hard to bear.

“A big part of my fight is like fighting for normalcy,” he said. “To go back to being the young father who would go to the park with his son and wife, and no one would bother them.”

But Khalil is also defiant. 

“My fight is not only about whether I get to stay in this country. It is about whether you know people in this country can speak their minds.

“Whether I am in or outside the United States, I’m committed to advocate for the rights of the Palestinian people,” he said. 

bjt/sms