![Palestinian Columbia graduate activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was released from ICE detention, and his wife Noor Abdalla speak and participate in a rally on the steps of Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan, New York, United States on Sunday, June 22, 2025. [Selçuk Acar - Anadolu Agency]](https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AA-20250623-38359442-38359405-MAHMOUD_KHALILS_PRESS_CONFERENCE_AND_RALLY_IN_NEW_YORK.jpg)
On March 8, 2025, Department of Homeland Security agents abducted Mahmoud Khalil as he was coming home from dinner with his wife. Khalil writes: “….those who enabled my targeting remain comfortably at Columbia University…. Columbia targeted me for my activism, creating a new authoritarian disciplinary office to bypass due process and silence students criticizing Israel. Columbia surrendered to federal pressure by disclosing student records to Congress and yielding to the Trump administration’s latest threats.” His experience points to a deeper entanglement between academic institutions and state power. During the McCarthy era, professors suspected of communist sympathies were surveilled, blacklisted, or dismissed, creating a chilling effect on radical scholarship. Historian Ellen Schrecker argues in her book, No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and […]
