Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent figure in the pro-Palestinian student protest movement that has roiled Columbia University's campus, and is currently held in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center, penned an opinion piece in the Washington Post on Thursday.
The piece was titled "What does my detention by ICE say about America?" with the subtitle "A democracy for some is no democracy at all."
During his op-ed, Khalil asks, "Why should protesting Israel’s indiscriminate killing of thousands of innocent Palestinians result in the erosion of my constitutional rights?"
Khalil also stated that he feels "ashamed to compare" his "conditions in ICE detention to Nazi concentration camps," yet referenced picking up his copy of Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. He also compared Frankl's writing from "the lens of a psychologist" and wondered if "Hussam Abu Safiya, a renowned hospital director...who has endured beatings, electric shocks and solitary confinement, will write about his ordeal from a medical perspective."
Khalil also commented on the "stunning" irony that two postage stamps on letters sent to him by supporters displayed the US flag, with one stating "liberty forever" and the other "justice forever."
Khalil argued that he believes in "the innate equality of all human beings. I believe in human dignity. I believe in the right of my people to look at the blue sky and not fear an impending missile."
He then compared the ongoing situation of detaining pro-Hamas protesters on US campuses to the "incarceration of 70,000 American citizens of Japanese descent," which he referred to as a reminder that "all too often, America has been a democracy of convenience."
"Rights are granted to those who align with power. For the poor, for people of color, for those who resist injustice, rights are but words written on water," Khalil argued.
"The right to free speech when it comes to Palestine has always been exceptionally weak. Even so, the crackdown on universities and students reveals just how afraid the White House is of the idea of Palestine’s freedom entering the mainstream," he continued.
"Why else would Trump officials not only attempt to deport me but also intentionally mislead the public about who I am and what I stand for?" he asked.
Who is Mahmoud Khalil?
A leader of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Khalil, was detained by ICE in early March.
Late in the same month, Reuters reported that the US government alleged that Khalil withheld that he worked for UNRWA in his visa application, saying that this should be grounds for deportation.
Anti-Israel activists chained themselves to a Columbia University entrance gate in early April in a protest based on the belief that a member of the board of trustees reported Khalil to ICE.
Khalil accused Columbia University of laying the “groundwork” for his “abduction” in an op-ed he dictated to the Columbia Spectator in early April, addressing his detention for allegedly spreading Hamas propaganda.
Michael Starr and Danielle Greyman-Kennard contributed to this report.