Hundreds of demonstrators marched at UC Berkeley on Tuesday, protesting the Trump administration’s arrest of an anti-Zionist movement leader at Columbia University for allegedly leading “activities aligned to Hamas,” a terrorist group.
Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian native of Palestinian heritage and a permanent U.S. resident, helped orchestrate ferociously anti-Israel protests at Columbia that spearheaded a national movement following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel and the start of the ongoing and devastating war in Gaza.
His arrest on Sunday has sharply divided Americans, including Jews.
Progressive, anti-Zionist and some liberal Jewish groups have attacked what they view as a dangerous incursion of free speech. Others, including the Anti-Defamation League, have endorsed what they view as an overdue crackdown on campus support for Hamas and the destruction of Israel — sentiments that have been commonplace at Columbia and other campuses.
On Tuesday, droves of students and some faculty members marched across the Berkeley campus in a show of numbers reminiscent of the previous academic year, when the campus was in the grips of entrenched student protests culminating in a tent encampment lasting weeks.
Students, waving Palestinian flags and wearing kaffiyehs, chanted “Intifada!” “Shame!” and “Free Mahmoud Khalil!” Hatem Bazian, a Cal lecturer and founder of the anti-Zionist group Students for Justice in Palestine, was one of a number of activists who delivered speeches periodically along the protest route. Students were handed black masks to conceal their faces.
The demonstration came as Cal remains in the federal government’s crosshairs for its treatment of Jewish students. The Trump administration has pledged to take a hardline approach to what it sees as rampant, unchecked antisemitism on American college campuses, outlined in an executive order signed Jan. 29.
In early February, the Trump administration put Cal on a shortlist of five universities being investigated by the Department of Education over antisemitism, along with Columbia, the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University and Portland State. Less than a month later, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Trump’s Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism would visit Cal along with nine other campuses. Just this week, Cal was included in a list of 60 universities threatened by the DOE with “enforcement actions” if they fail to “protect Jewish students on campus.”
UC Berkeley is also being sued in federal court by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law on allegations that it has failed to protect Jewish students from discrimination and harassment.
Demonstrations in support of Palestinians and against Israel had tapered off on campuses during the current school year. But the latest march raises questions about whether Khalil’s arrest could reignite the protest movement at Cal — and across the country.
Tuesday’s protest also came as scores of Jewish faculty members at Cal spoke out against what they view as threats to free speech from the Trump administration.
More than 90 Jewish professors have signed onto a statement criticizing blanket threats from the Trump administration to punish pro-Palestinian protesters. The statement, which was prepared over the “last few weeks,” one of its authors told J., did not name Khalil specifically.
“We, a group of Berkeley Jewish faculty and staff, are deeply troubled to hear calls for the deportation of foreign-born university students, staff, and faculty who are deemed, without any clear criteria, supporters of terrorism or terrorist organizations,” the statement said.
“We encourage people to uphold existing state and federal laws, and campus policies,” letter co-author Ethan Katz, a professor and faculty director for the university’s Center of Jewish Studies, told J. “We have laws about foreign nationals supporting terrorism. I believe in those laws.”
Katz added, “But if we’re going to say, ‘I know everybody out there is a Hamas supporter because I didn’t like some of the signs at the protest, and therefore we’re coming for you?’ That’s a different story.”
A university spokesperson said the administration would not comment on Tuesday’s protest.
The demonstration at Cal was advertised by the General Union for Palestine Students at San Francisco State University, along with pro-Palestinian student and faculty groups at UC Berkeley and the University of San Francisco. Social media promotion of the protest referred to Khalil as a “political prisoner,” stating that “Trump and ICE kidnapped a Palestinian Columbia student” and calling his arrest a “blatant violation of free speech.” The digital flyer added, “The student intifada will not be silenced.”
Khalil is reportedly being held in a federal detention facility in Louisiana. The government is seeking to deport Khalil, but a federal judge ruled that it would not happen pending further proceedings. A hearing in his case is scheduled for Wednesday.