New York: Demonstrators from a Jewish group filled the lobby of Trump Tower on Thursday to denounce the immigration arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist who helped lead protests against Israel at Columbia University.
The demonstrators from Jewish Voice for Peace wore red shirts reading “Jews say stop arming Israel” and held up banners as they chanted “Bring Mahmoud home now!” on the lower level of the Fifth Avenue building’s public atrium.
After warning the protesters to leave, police said they arrested 98 people who stayed on various charges, including trespassing, obstruction and resisting arrest.
Khalil, a 30-year-old permanent US resident who is married to an American citizen and who has not been charged with breaking any laws, was arrested outside his New York City apartment on Saturday and faces deportation. He is being held at an immigration detention centre in Louisiana.
President Donald Trump has said Khalil’s arrest was the first “of many to come” and vowed on social media to deport students who he said engage in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity”. The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment about the Trump Tower demonstration.
Among those who took part in Thursday’s protest was actor Debra Winger, who was not arrested. She accused the Trump administration of having “no interest in Jewish safety” and “co-opting antisemitism”.
“I am just standing up for my rights, and I am standing up for Mahmoud Khalil, who has been abducted illegally and taken to an undisclosed location,” Winger told The Associated Press, referring to how Khalil’s attorney did not know his whereabouts immediately following his arrest. “Does that sound like America to you?” Founded in 1996, Jewish Voice for Peace describes itself as a grassroots movement of American Jews seeking to “end US support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians”. It is one of a number of Jewish groups around the world advocating for the rights of Palestinians.
Protester Sophie Edelhart, a Barnard graduate who studies Yiddish as part of a PhD programme in Canada, said the building — with its golden escalator that Trump rode before announcing his 2016 presidential run — was a symbolic target.
Trump Tower serves as headquarters for the Trump Organisation and is where the president stays when he is in New York. The skyscraper often attracts demonstrations, both against and in support of its namesake, though protests inside are less common. The multi-story atrium is accessible to the public and connects visitors to eateries, including the Trump Grill.
Khalil’s supporters say his arrest is an attack on free speech and have staged protests elsewhere in the city and around the country, including outside a Manhattan courthouse during a brief hearing on his case on Wednesday.
Columbia University was a focal point of the pro-Palestinian protest movement that swept across US college campuses last year and led to more than 2,000 arrests.
On Thursday, the school announced that it expelled or suspended some students who took over a campus building during pro-Palestinian protests last spring. The Trump administration has said it is revoking at least USD 400 million in funding from programmes affiliated with Columbia, including medical research grants, as punishment for not doing enough to curtail protest activity that the president considers antisemitic.
Also on Thursday, lawyers for Khalil and other students identified by pseudonyms filed a lawsuit seeking to block a congressional committee from obtaining the disciplinary records of students at Columbia and Barnard College, a women’s institution affiliated with Columbia.
Khalil, whose wife is pregnant with their first child, finished his requirements for a Columbia master’s degree in December.
