BUZZ
Khalil recently said he is still unsure if Hamas targeted Israeli civilians for killing
Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil is “one step closer” to deportation following an adverse ruling, the Associated Press reported.
Khalil, a 31-year-old former Columbia University graduate student, has remained free while he awaits a ruling on his appeal. The Trump administration has tried for several years now to deport him, arguing he omitted his past work experience at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
Critics say he is being deported for exercising his free speech rights to criticize Israel.
“The Board of Immigration Appeals issued the final order of removal on [April 9], according to Khalil’s lawyers,” the Associated Press reported.” The board’s rulings are not public, and an inquiry to the U.S. Department of Justice was not immediately returned.”
The activist stated: “The only thing I am guilty of is speaking out against the genocide in Palestine — and this administration has weaponized the immigration system to punish me for it.”
The immigration appeals board, which is part of the Department of Justice, had to make a decision before Khalil could appeal elsewhere, a U.S. appeals panel previously ruled.
The Syrian student activist, who has Algerian citizenship, has continued to court controversy, as he recently said he does not know if Hamas targeted Israeli civilians for murder on October 7, 2023, or just to kidnap them.
“I wouldn’t say Hamas were saints or angels and did not commit any crimes,” Khalil told Forward, a Jewish news magazine. “The fact that civilians were caught up in such violence and the killing means that there were crimes committed, and Hamas has a responsibility for that.”
“I have no idea, to be honest,” he reportedly said when asked if civilians were “targeted” or “caught up in a hostage-taking operation,” by Hamas.
“Hamas, yes, targeted civilians to take them hostage, which is another crime — that doesn’t absolve them of anything like, ‘I want to kidnap them rather than kill them.’ That’s the same, as it turned out later,” he said.
Last July, Khalil said during a CNN interview that it is “absurd” and “disingenuous” to ask him if he condemns the terrorist group Hamas.
“To me, it‘s always, as I said, disingenuous and absurd to ask such questions when literally 62,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel,” he said. “And that‘s why I wouldn‘t really engage much into such questions on condemnation or not. Because selective condemnation wouldn‘t get us anywhere. It’s just like [hypocritical] to be honest.”
A few weeks later, he justified the Hamas attack as necessary to “break the cycle.”
