Mahmoud Khalil credits Palestinian activism for reshaping US politics
Khalil returned to Columbia University to discuss his memoir detailing his arrest and detention by US immigration agents
Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil says campus advocacy has shifted public perception and encouraged a generation of leaders to question their views on Israel, speaking as he returned to Columbia University for the first time since his arrest.
The 31-year-old Columbia graduate, who became a figurehead of the campus movement that swept the United States in 2024, returned to campus on Tuesday to discuss his new memoir, No Land to Stand On: Notes from Detention, marking his first visit since his arrest on March 8, 2025.
“The American public is finally changing, is finally looking at the Palestinian as an equal human,” he told the AFP news agency in an interview.
He has repeatedly slammed the university for its handling of the demonstrations, which included authorising the New York Police Department to clear protesters from the Manhattan campus.