Around two dozen students and alumni from Columbia University had a protest in 116th Street on Monday and in the Amsterdam Avenue Gates of the Ivy League Institution, whereby the targeted detention of student activists Pro-Palestine is denounced by US immigration and customs authorities.
The protest took place a week after the imprisonment of Mohsen Mahdawi in his naturalization in Vermont and more than a month after the fight against Mahnoud Khalil took place in his residence at the university ownership on March 8. It was organized by the Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition, the Jewish voice for Peace and the Columbia University Alumni for Palestinian.
Mahnoud and Mohsen are both members of the Palestinian Student Union in Colombia, who have led peaceful protests and camps against the ongoing genocide of Israel in Gaza on the campus, and Columbia to distribute themselves from companies that participated in the Israeli apartheid, crew and genocide of the Palesticians.
According to the Columbia Spectator, at least three people closed Even at the gates with bicycle chains during the demonstration. Demonstrators also tied cards with the names of the Palestinians killed in Gaza at the gates and read the names and age of the Palestinian children murdered since October 2023.
The demonstration aimed to uncover and condemn the accomplice of Columbia University in Israel’s attack on Gaza Strip and to resist the continued oppression and deletion of Palestinian votes within academic institutions.
In addition to the immediate release of Mahdawi and Khalil, the demonstrators outlined several additional requirements, including complete financial transparency from Columbia, the designation of the university as a sanctuary campus and the permanent reopening of all campus gates.
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The gates have been blocked since October 2023 after the expected protests against the escalated attack of Israel on Gaza expected to enter the entry to those with valid IDs in Columbia and the reduction of public access. These restrictions were further tightened in August 2024, with access to five monitored entry points restricted and required to register for guests.
Although the Columbia University is officially in Morningside Heights, it is often often perceived As part of Greater Harlem – a historically black cultural and political fortress. As such, the closure of the gates is widely regarded as a deliberate act of separation from the surrounding Harlem community.
Columbia public security and NYPD officials were reportedly present during the entire protest repeated Warnings that themselves were chained to university property was a violation of the rules of conduct and were able to lead to an arrest. Public security later removed the chains, and at least one demonstrator was taken into custody.
This campaign is the second time this semester that Columbia students chained themselves to Campus goals in protest against ICE. The demonstration also coincided with an event of the Columbia Journalism School via the Global Press Freedom.
At the beginning of this month, Mahmoud Khalil accused the Columbia University of Complicity in the ice arrest, Description His detention as part of the “Columbia Repression -PlayBooks”. He criticized the university that he has made an eye of the outside change to Israel’s mass murder of Palestinians and rhetoric, which legitimizes Israel’s actions.
Khalil, a lawful constant resident of the United States, became a father in the modania while he was still in ice custody. The authorities had contested his application for temporary release to participate in the birth of his child.
“My son and I should not navigate his first days on earth without Mahmoud. ICE and the Trump government stole these moments of our family to silence Mahmoud’s support for the Palestinian freedom,” said his wife Noor Abdalla in a statement after birth.
