Demonstrators led by Jewish Voice for Peace demanding release of Palestinian activist stood in US president\u2019s New York City building<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Protesters organized by a progressive Jewish group occupied the lobby of Trump Tower in New York<\/a> City on Thursday to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil<\/a>, the Palestinian Columbia University student held by US immigration authorities<\/a>. About 100 were arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chanted slogans included: \u201cFree Mahmoud, free them all\u201d and: \u201cFight Nazis, not students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other chants in footage posted to social media included<\/a>: \u201cWe will not comply, Mahmoud, we are on your side\u201d and<\/a>: \u201cBring Mahmoud home now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At a news briefing on Thursday afternoon, a police official said those arrested faced charges including trespassing, obstruction and resisting arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of the protesters in a group organizers said was more than 250-strong wore red T-shirts bearing the message \u201cJews say stop arming Israel\u201d. By early afternoon, footage was posted<\/a> showing officers from the New York police department beginning to arrest protesters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The protest in the gold-coloured lobby of Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s signature Fifth Avenue building, the US president\u2019s New York home, was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, which describes<\/a> itself as \u201cthe largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world\u201d and has staged protests at New York landmarks including Grand Central Station<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a statement, the group said: \u201cThe detention of Mahmoud is further proof that we are on the brink of a full takeover by a repressive, authoritarian regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs Jews of conscience, we know our history and we know where this leads. It\u2019s on all of us to stand up now. Many of us are the descendants of people who resisted European fascism and far too many of our ancestors lost their lives in that struggle. We call on the strength of our ancestors and we call on our tradition, which teaches us we must never stand idly by.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The actor Debra Winger participated in the protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Accusing the Trump administration of having \u201cno interest in Jewish safety\u201d and \u201cco-opting antisemitism\u201d, Winger told<\/a> the Associated Press: \u201cI\u2019m just standing up for my rights, and I\u2019m standing up for Mahmoud Khalil, who has been abducted illegally and taken to an undisclosed location. Does that sound like America to you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Khalil, 30, was a lead organizer of protests at Columbia University over Israel\u2019s war in Gaza, which began after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having completed a master\u2019s degree, Khalil is due to graduate from Columbia in May. Though he is a legal permanent US resident and married to an American citizen, he was arrested in New York<\/a> last Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He is now in custody in Louisiana, without charge but held under a rarely used<\/a> immigration law provision that allows the secretary of state to approve the detention of anyone deemed a threat to US foreign policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His lawyer, Baher Azmy, the director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, has called<\/a> the arrest \u201cabsolutely unprecedented\u201d and \u201cessentially a form of retaliation and punishment for the exercise of free speech\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amid Trump administration<\/a> attacks on universities<\/a> over pro-Palestinian protests, observers<\/a> say Khalil is being used as a test case for mass arrests. Trump has said<\/a> Khalil\u2019s arrest is \u201cthe first of many to come\u201d, and promised to deport students seen to be guilty of \u201cpro-terrorist, antisemitic, anti-American activity\u201d. Khalil has not been accused of breaking any laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Thursday, Khalil\u2019s wife, Noor Abdalla, who is eight months pregnant, spoke to Reuters. She said Khalil asked her a week ago if she knew what to do if officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) came to the door of their home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI didn\u2019t take him seriously. Clearly I was naive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She added: \u201cI think it would be very devastating for me and for him to meet his first child behind a glass screen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Khalil \u201cis Palestinian and he\u2019s always been interested in Palestinian politics\u201d, she said. \u201cHe\u2019s standing up for his people, he\u2019s fighting for his people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Wednesday, in a statement read by a lawyer, Abdalla, 28, said: \u201cMy husband was kidnapped from our home, and it is shameful that the US government continues to hold him because he stood for the rights and lives of his people. I demand his immediate release and return to our family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo many who know and love Mahmoud have come together, refusing to stay silent. Their support is a testament to his character and to the deep injustice of what is being done to him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sonya E Meyerson-Knox, director of communications for Jewish Voice for Peace, posted<\/a> footage of the Trump Tower protest on Thursday and said: \u201cWe will not comply \u2013 Mahmoud we are in your side[,] 300 Jews and friends in Trump Towers [sic] [because] we know what happens when an autocratic regime starts taking away our rights and scapegoating and we will not be silent[.] COME FOR ONE – FACE US ALL[.]\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jewish Voice for Peace said descendants of Holocaust survivors were among the protesters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n