NEW YORK, March 11, 2025 (WAFA) – Thousands of activists participated in a mass demonstration in New York to protest the arrest of Palestinian student at Columbia University Mahmoud Khalil who was detained by immigration officers as part of their efforts to deport him on charges of participating in "anti-Semitic" activities, as they described it, during the genocide committed by Israeli against Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

This comes in light of the activists continuing to sign electronic petitions demanding the immediate freedom of student Khalil, as more than two million activists signed the petitions that reject his arrest and the efforts of local authorities in New York to deport him from the United States despite his legal presence through "permanent residency".

The Federal Court in New York, in front of which the activists demonstrated, had ruled to temporarily prevent the deportation of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, pending a hearing next Wednesday.

Earlier yesterday, US President Donald Trump said in response to the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil: “This is the first arrest, and there will be more,” referring to the US administration’s efforts to arrest other students who participated in university protests against the Israeli war on the Palestinian people over the past two years.

K.T