New York protesters demand release of Mahmoud Khalil

The US government's move to arrest an anti-war and pro-Palestinian activist who is studying in the country has heightened concerns about intensifying security confrontations with Palestinian advocates and student movements in the United States.

The concerns have been raised after the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent figure in the pro-Palestinian student protests at Columbia University in New York State, USA. The US Department of Homeland Security has arrested Khalil and revoked his green card on charges that he supports Hamas, a group the US has designated a terrorist organisation. The move has raised the risk of the Palestinian student being expelled from Columbia University.

Mahmoud Khalil played a key role in the large-scale protests by Palestinian activists at several American universities, including Columbia University, and was known as a mediator between students who were protesting against the university administration. Last year, he and a large group of Columbia University students held a large-scale protest and strike on the campus to protest the Israeli military's war and killings of Palestinians in Gaza. The protesting students called on the university officials to cut off financial and research cooperation with the Israeli government and the educational institutions of the brutal regime in order to protest the killings in Gaza. The call was rejected by Columbia University officials and administration, and instead the protesters were accused of anti-Semitism. This is despite the fact that, among the students who support Palestine, there were also Jewish students who recognized the Israeli government as committing genocide against the Palestinian people.

Now, months after the protests that spread and led to a major crackdown by the state on university students, the new US administration is trying to intimidate and suppress students who support Palestine under the pretext of confronting Hamas supporters. It is worth noting here that similar efforts were also made by the previous US administration by red-penning the presidents of Columbia and Pennsylvania universities, but in the current administration, US President Donald Trump has increased these measures of repression of opponents of the murders committed by Israel. He recently announced his decision to expel foreign students from the US who advocate for Palestine and even went so far as to threaten that American students who support Palestine should also be expelled from universities and imprisoned. The threats did not stop there, but in a move that sparked much debate, the US government canceled government contracts worth 400 million dollars with Columbia University, on the pretext that university officials were ignoring alleged anti-Semitism. US government officials hope that they will succeed in preventing any student protests in the country against the Israeli killings by increasing financial pressures on universities.

These actions have been met with criticism within the university and in American political circles. Some believe that Mahmoud Khalil supported the Palestinians and made no public comments about the Hamas movement. Other critics see the arrest and persecution of this activist and other students as an attempt to intimidate Palestinian advocates in the United States, who will face accusations and strict security measures if they persist in their positions.

Another group of analysts says that the crackdown is a way to intimidate the student movement in the United States so that it will not join and oppose some of the current government's policies in the future. They also call the security measures taken against Mahmoud Khalil a violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression.