"Perhaps you've heard of the "Palestine Exception," the idea that all sorts of behaviors and speech that are acceptable in other contexts are denied and punished when it comes to advocacy around Palestine. But what if the treatment of Palestinians wasn't an exception but a stress test? A test of our tolerance as a nation and as a people, for cruelty and the consolidation of authoritarian rule."
"A negotiator for the pro-Palestine student protests on Columbia University's campus in 2024, Khalil was arrested without a warrant by unidentified men in March. He was one of the first and most visible abductions after the second Trump administration took office. Khalil, a legal permanent resident who had committed no violence and broken no law, was taken from his pregnant wife and transported 1,500 miles to a Louisiana detention camp without access to a lawyer or any means of defense."
Advocacy around Palestine is framed as a stress test for national tolerance, exposing mechanisms of authoritarian consolidation that name enemies, declare emergencies, and invoke extraordinary powers to intimidate dissent. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia student negotiator, was arrested without a warrant, taken from his pregnant wife, and held 1,500 miles away in a Louisiana detention camp without legal access despite committing no violence. The administration sought his expulsion on the basis of his beliefs, statements, and associations; a federal judge ordered his release, but the government later pursued deportation citing green-card errors. Khalil is suing for $20 million while appealing the deportation order.
Read at The Nation
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