Demonstrators from a Jewish group crammed the foyer of Trump Tower on Thursday to denounce the immigration arrest of a Columbia College activist who helped lead pupil protests on the Manhattan campus in opposition to Israel’s struggle in Gaza.
The Jewish Voice for Peace protesters, who wore pink shirts studying “Jews say stop arming Israel” and carried banners studying “Opposing fascism is a Jewish tradition” and “Fight Nazis not students,” chanted “Convey Mahmoud dwelling now!”
Mahmoud Khalil, a everlasting U.S. resident who’s married to an American citizen and who hasn’t been charged with breaking any legal guidelines, was arrested exterior his New York Metropolis condo on Saturday and faces deportation. President Donald Trump has stated Khalil’s arrest was the primary “of many to come” and vowed on social media to deport college students who he stated interact in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”
Police, who have been staged inside and out of doors the Fifth Avenue constructing forward of the demonstration, started arresting protesters after warning them to depart.
Among the many protesters was actor Debra Winger, who has mentioned her Jewish religion and upbringing through the years.
Winger accused the Trump administration of getting “no interest in Jewish safety” and “co-opting antisemitism.”
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Demonstrators from the group, Jewish Voice for Peace, protest inside Trump Tower in assist of Columbia graduate pupil Mahmoud Khalil, Thursday, March 13, 2025, in New York. (AP Photograph/Yuki Iwamura)
“I’m just standing up for my rights, and I’m standing up for Mahmoud Khalil, who has been abducted illegally and taken to an undisclosed location,” she told The Associated Press. “Does that sound like America to you?”
Khalil’s supporters say his arrest is an assault on free speech and have staged protests elsewhere within the metropolis and across the nation. Lots of demonstrated Wednesday exterior a Manhattan courthouse throughout a quick listening to on his case.
Trump Tower serves as headquarters for the Trump Group and is the place the president stays when he’s in New York. The skyscraper usually attracts demonstrations, each in opposition to and in assist of its namesake, although protests inside are much less widespread. The constructing’s primary entrance opens to a multi-story atrium that’s open to the general public and connects guests to shops and eateries such because the Trump Grill.
Khalil, 30, was being detained at an immigration detention heart in Louisiana, the place he has remained after a quick cease at a New Jersey lockup.
Columbia was a focus of the pro-Palestinian protest motion that swept throughout U.S. school campuses final 12 months and led to greater than 2,000 arrests.
Khalil, whose spouse is pregnant with their first baby, completed his necessities for a Columbia grasp’s diploma in December. Born in Syria, he’s a grandson of Palestinians who have been pressured to depart their homeland, his legal professionals stated in a authorized submitting.
Related Press reporters Joseph B. Frederick and Michael Hill in Albany, New York, contributed.
