Free Mahmoud Khalil Now!

On March 8, federal agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student active in last year’s encampment against the Gaza genocide. A Palestinian born in Syria, Khalil is a U.S. permanent resident, married to a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant. When his wife and lawyers could not get a straight story on where or why he was being held, they filed a habeas corpus lawsuit. The feds retaliated by shipping Khalil to a Louisiana dungeon. With no evidence of any crime, the government instead wants to deport him based on the lie that by exercising his First Amendment rights to speak out against genocide he promoted “anti-semitism” and “terrorism.” President Trump threatened: “This is the first arrest of many to come.”

The PDC demands: Free Mahmoud Khalil Now! Restore his Green Card! No Deportations! Hands off pro-Palestine protesters! The broadest possible forces must be mobilized to defend Khalil and other activists. Already thousands have demonstrated in New York. PDC supporters have joined over three million who signed the actionnetwork.org petition calling for his release. We encourage you to do the same.

A federal judge has stayed Khalil’s deportation for the moment. Some Democrats have expressed their “concern” about the case. We advocate the pursuit of every possible legal procedure to free him. But we warn against any illusions in the “justice” of the capitalist courts or in the Democratic Party of genocide, which has backed the Zionist butchers to the hilt and paved the way for escalating repression under Trump. For the first 15 months of the massacres, it was Democrats from Biden/Harris to governors and city administrations who attacked, arrested, jailed and fired pro-Palestine campus activists.

Instead, defense of the protesters requires the mobilization of students, faculty, workers, and all of the oppressed, who share a vital interest in stopping these attacks. The victimization of Palestine activists is part and parcel of the broader attacks being carried out against immigrants and workers and everyone else in the U.S. imperialists’ crosshairs. The idea that setting up tents on the campus quad creates a “hostile environment” for Jewish students is a big lie. But it also sets a chilling precedent they will use to go after striking workers who set up a solid picket line in defense of their livelihoods. A successful defense of the pro-Palestine movement will put us all in a better position to fight back. Raise the call broadly in your unions, community, civil rights and left organizations, on the campuses and in the streets:

Hands off Mahmoud Khalil and all pro-Palestine protesters! Free Palestine!

13 March 2025