How US dealt with the cases of nine Americans killed by Israel since 2022
Musallet's relatives want Washington to launch its own investigation into the incident to ensure accountability.
The Florida-born 20-year-old is the ninth US citizen to be killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers since 2022. None of the previous cases have led to criminal charges or US sanctions against the perpetrators.
That lack of response is what advocates call a 'pattern of impunity', wherein Washington demands a probe without placing any significant pressure on Israel to produce results.
In Musallet's case, the administration of President Donald Trump urged Israel to 'aggressively' investigate the killing.
'There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act,' Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, said in a statement on Tuesday.
It is not clear if the US has taken any further actions to seek justice in the aftermath of the fatal beating.
Critics say the 'pattern of impunity' stems in part from the historically close bonds between the US and Israel. Successive presidential administrations in the US have affirmed their 'unwavering' support for Israel, and the US provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid annually.
Here, Al Jazeera looks at who the eight other victims were, how the US has responded to their killing and where their cases stand.
Omar Assad
Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian American, was driving home in the occupied West Bank after visiting friends on January 12, 2022, when Israeli soldiers stopped him at a checkpoint.
According to the autopsy report and his family's account, the troops dragged Assad out of his car and then handcuffed, gagged and blindfolded him, leaving him to die at a cold construction site.
The administration of then-President Joe Biden called on Israel to launch a criminal investigation into the incident.
But Assad's relatives and lawmakers from his home state of Milwaukee wanted Washington to conduct its own probe – a demand that never materialised.
As is often the case, Israel's investigation into its own soldiers' conduct did not lead to any criminal charges.
In 2023, the Israeli army said that it found no 'causal link' between the way its soldiers treated Assad and his death.
The Biden administration also declined to apply sanctions under US law to the Israeli unit that killed Assad: the Netzah Yehuda, a battalion notorious for its abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Last year, the US Department of State announced that the battalion will still be eligible for US aid under the Leahy Law, which prohibits military assistance for security units involved in human rights violations.
Shireen Abu Akleh
Abu Akleh, a veteran Al Jazeera reporter, was fatally shot by Israeli forces during a raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on May 11, 2022.
Owing to her status as one of the most celebrated journalists in the Middle East, her killing sparked international outrage from rights groups and press freedom advocates.
Despite the global attention, Israeli forces attacked her funeral in Jerusalem, beating the pallbearers carrying her coffin with batons.
Israel initially denied killing Abu Akleh, 51, falsely claiming that the reporter was shot by armed Palestinians.
Months later, after multiple visual investigations showed that Israeli soldiers targeted Abu Akleh, Israel acknowledged that its forces likely killed the reporter, dismissing the incident as an accident.
The Biden administration faced waves of pleas by legislators and rights groups to launch its own investigation into the killing, but it resisted the calls, arguing that Israel is capable of investigating itself.
In November 2022, Israeli media reports claimed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was investigating the shooting of Abu Akleh, but the US Department of Justice never confirmed the probe.
More than three years after Abu Akleh's killing, her family and supporters say justice in her case has not been served.
Tawfiq Ajaq
Born in Louisiana, Ajaq was 17 when he visited the occupied West Bank to see his relatives last year.
On January 19, 2024, he was driving a pick-up truck with his friends when Israelis sprayed the vehicle with bullets and killed him.
Mohammed Salameh, who witnessed and survived the attack, said the shooting was unprovoked.
While it is not clear which individual shot Ajaq, Israel said the incident involved 'an off-duty law enforcement officer, a soldier and a civilian' and was sparked by 'rock-throwing activities' – a claim that Salameh has denied.
The US State Department called for an 'urgent investigation to determine the circumstance' of the incident.
But more than 19 months after the shooting, Israel has not publicly released any findings or charged any suspect in the shooting.
'We feel abandoned by our government,' Ajaq's uncle, Mohammad Abdeljabbar, told Al Jazeera last year.
Mohammad Khdour
Khdour was also 17 when he was killed under almost identical circumstances to Ajaq just weeks later.
According to his cousin Malek Mansour, who witnessed the attack, an unidentified assailant opened fire at their car in the occupied West Bank from a vehicle with an Israeli number plate.
Mansour said the attack was unprovoked. Khdour died on February 10, 2024.
The two had been eating cookies and taking selfies moments before the shooting.
Once again, Washington called for a probe.
'There needs to be an investigation. We need to get the facts. And if appropriate, there needs to be accountability,' then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at that time.
But advocates say that, while normally Israel launches sham investigations into such incidents, Israeli authorities have not acknowledged Khdour's killing at all.
The Israeli military and police told the publication Haaretz last year that they are not familiar with the case.
Jacob Flickinger
An Israeli air strike targeted a World Central Kitchen (WCK) vehicle in Gaza on April 1, 2024, killing seven aid workers, sparking anger and condemnation across the world.
Among the victims was Flickinger, a 33-year-old US-Canadian dual citizen.
Biden called for a 'swift' Israeli investigation into the attack, which he said 'must bring accountability'.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the blast a 'tragic accident'.
The Israeli military said the commander who ordered the strike had 'mistakenly assumed' that gunmen in the area were in the aid vehicle.
It added that the commander did not identify the car as associated with World Central Kitchen, a well-known hunger relief initiative founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres.
A World Central Kitchen logo was displayed prominently on the top of the vehicle before the attack.
Israel said it dismissed two commanders over the incident, but there were no criminal charges.
Since then, Israel has killed hundreds of aid workers in Gaza, including Palestinian staff members from World Central Kitchen.
Last year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza as well as other alleged war crimes.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi
Eygi, born in Washington state, was participating in a protest against an illegal settler outpost in the West Bank on September 6, 2024, when an Israeli soldier shot her in the head.
She was 26.
While there were reports of a scuffle during a crackdown on the demonstration by Israeli forces, several witnesses have said that Eygi was shot during a calm period after the chaos had ended.
The State Department called on Israel to 'quickly and robustly' investigate Eygi's killing, but it ruled out conducting its own probe.
Biden dismissed her death as an 'accident', but Blinken condemned it as 'unprovoked and unjustified'.
On the same day that Eygi was fatally shot by Israel, the US Justice Department filed charges against Hamas leaders after the killing of US-Israeli captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Gaza.
The Israeli military said its soldiers likely killed Eygi 'indirectly and unintentionally' – a conclusion that her family called offensive, stressing that she was targeted by a sniper.
'The disregard shown for human life in the inquiry is appalling,' the family said in a statement.
Trump ally Randy Fine, now a Congress member, celebrated the killing of Eygi. 'One less #MuslimTerrorist,' he wrote in a social media post, referring to the shooting.
Kamel Jawad
When Jawad, a celebrated leader in the Lebanese American community in Michigan, was killed by an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon on October 1 of last year, the Biden administration initially denied he was a US citizen.
Washington later acknowledged that Jawad was American, expressing 'alarm' over his killing.
'As we have noted repeatedly, it is a moral and strategic imperative that Israel take all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm. Any loss of civilian life is a tragedy,' the US State Department said at that time.
Israel has not commented publicly on the strike that killed Jawad.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) slammed the Biden administration's handling of the case, including the US government's initial 'smug' response.
'It's as if they're intentionally trying to see our people killed, intentionally downplaying us and dehumanising us,' ADC executive director Abed Ayoub told Al Jazeera last year.
Amer Rabee
On April 6, Israeli forces in the West Bank fatally shot 14-year-old Rabee, a New Jersey native, and called him a 'terrorist'. Two of his friends were also injured in the attack.
While the Israeli military accused Rabee and his friends of throwing rocks at Israeli vehicles, the slain teenager's family insisted that he was picking almonds on the side of the road.
The Trump administration failed to pursue accountability in the case or even publicly press for further details about the incident.
Instead, the State Department cited the Israeli account about the 14-year-old's killing.
'We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss,' the State Department said at that time. 'We acknowledge the [Israeli military's] initial statement that expressed that this incident occurred during a counter-terrorism operation.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
17 minutes ago
- Al Jazeera
‘Bomb first': Trump's approach to US war-making in his second term
Washington, DC – During the first six months of his second term, Donald Trump pushed the limits of US presidential power while aiming to reorient US foreign policy to 'America First'. His first months in office have also offered a window into the future of his administration's approach to war-making, what analysts characterise as an at times contradictory tactic that oscillates between avowed anti-interventionism and quicksilver military attacks, justified as 'peace through strength'. While questions remain over whether Trump has indeed pursued a coherent strategy when it comes to direct US involvement in international conflict, one thing has been clear in the first portion of Trump's second four-year term: US air attacks, long Washington's tool of choice since launching the so-called 'war on terror' in the early 2000s, have again surged. According to a report released last week by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), since Trump's re-entry into office on January 20, the US has carried out 529 air attacks in 240 locations across the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. That figure, which accounts for just the first five months of Trump's four-year term as president, is already nearing the 555 attacks launched by the administration of US President Joe Biden over his whole term from 2021 to 2025. 'The most extreme tool at his disposal – targeted airstrikes – is being used not as a last resort, but as the first move,' Clionadh Raleigh, a professor of political geography and conflict and founder of ACLED, said in a statement accompanying the report. 'While Trump has repeatedly promised to end America's 'forever wars', he has rarely elaborated on how. These early months suggest the plan may be to use overwhelming firepower to end fights before they begin, or before they drag on.' A 'Trump Doctrine'? Trump's willingness to unleash lethal force abroad – and the inherent risk that the brazen approach carries of dragging the US into protracted conflict – has already roiled influential segments of the president's Make America Great Again (MAGA) base, coming to a head over Trump's six-week bombing campaign against the Houthis in Yemen and, more recently, his June decision to strike three nuclear facilities in Iran amid Israel's offensive on its neighbour. In turn, Trump's top officials have sought to bring coherence to the strategy, with Vice President JD Vance in late June offering the clearest vision yet of a Trump blueprint for foreign intervention. 'What I call the 'Trump Doctrine' is quite simple,' Vance said at the Ohio speech. 'Number one, you articulate a clear American interest, and that's in this case that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon.' 'Number two, you try to aggressively diplomatically solve that problem,' he said. 'And number three, when you can't solve it diplomatically, you use overwhelming military power to solve it, and then you get the hell out of there before it ever becomes a protracted conflict.' But the reality of Trump's early diplomatic and military adventures has not matched the vision outlined by Vance, according to Michael Wahid Hanna, the US Program Director at Crisis Group. He called the statement an attempt to 'retrofit coherence'. While Hanna cautioned against putting too much stock into a unified strategy, he did point to one 'consistent thread': a diplomatic approach that appears 'haphazard, not fully conceived, and characterised by impatience'. 'For all of the talk about being a peacemaker and wanting to see quick deals, Trump has a particularly unrealistic view of the ways in which diplomacy can work,' he told Al Jazeera. The US president had vowed to transform peace efforts in the Russia-Ukraine war, but an earlier pressure campaign against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has since seen Trump circle back to the Biden administration's hardline approach to Russia, with little progress made in between. After an initial ceasefire in Gaza, Trump officials have failed to make meaningful progress in reigning in Israel's war, leaving the threat of knock-on conflicts, including with Iran and the Houthis in Yemen, unanswered. Earlier diplomatic overtures to address Iran's nuclear programme stalled as Trump took a maximalist approach seeking to block any uranium enrichment. The effort dissolved after the US failed to constrain Israel's military campaign against Tehran, as the US continues to provide billions in military funding to the 'ironclad ally'. 'It's hard to argue, as Vance did, that the United States has really pushed as hard as they can on diplomacy,' Hanna told Al Jazeera. Under Vance's logic, he added, 'that leaves them with no other means than to respond militarily'. 'Bomb first and ask questions later'? The early emphasis on air attacks has been accompanied by vows by Trump and his Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth to restore a 'warrior ethos' within the US military. Indeed, Trump has appeared to relish the military actions, posting a video of the attack on an ISIL (ISIS) affiliated target in Somalia on February 1, just 10 days after taking office. He made a point to draw a comparison to Biden, who tightened rules of engagement policies Trump had loosened during his first term and entered office vowing to severely limit the reliance on US strikes. Trump wrote that 'Biden and his cronies wouldn't act quickly enough to get the job done'. 'I did! The message to ISIS and all others who would attack Americans is that 'WE WILL FIND YOU, AND WE WILL KILL YOU!' All told since taking office six months ago, Trump has carried out at least 44 air strikes in Somalia, where the US has long targeted both a local ISIL offshoot and al-Shabab, according to ACLED data. The Biden administration carried out just over 60 such strikes during his entire four years in office. The US president has posted similarly boastful messages about strikes in Yemen, where his administration conducted a bombing campaign from March to May, accounting for the vast majority of overall strikes during his second term, as well as US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, which Trump declared were 'obliterated like nobody's ever seen before', long before any in-depth assessment had been made. Raleigh, who is also a professor of political geography and conflict at the University of Sussex, said the increase could possibly be attributed to Trump's pivot away from the soft-power policy of Biden, which has included shearing down the US State Department and dismantling the US foreign aid apparatus. That could further be viewed as an effort by Trump to place the US as a 'player in a new internationalised conflict environment', where overall violence by state actors on foreign soil has increased steadily in recent years, currently accounting for 30 percent of all violent events ACLED tracks globally. 'But I would say there's still no clear Trump doctrine, as much as Vance wants to claim that there is,' Raleigh told Al Jazeera. 'And at the moment, it's looking a little bit like 'bomb first and ask questions later.'' That approach has proven to have particularly deadly consequences, according to Emily Tripp, the director of Airwars. She drew a parallel to Trump's first term, when he also surged air strikes, outpacing those of his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, who himself oversaw an expansion of drone warfare abroad. The monitor has tracked 224 reported civilian casualties in Yemen from US strikes under Trump in 2025, nearly totaling the 258 reported civilian casualties from US actions in the country during the 23 years prior. The administration has also used particularly powerful – and expensive – munitions in its strikes, which Airwars has assessed as appearing to have been deployed against a broader set of targets than under Biden. Two of the Trump administration's strikes on Yemen, one on Ras Isa Port and another on a migrant detention centre in Saada, have been deemed possible war crimes by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. 'That's not typical, or necessarily something you'd expect in a campaign whose remit, as defined by Trump, Hegseth, and [US Central Command], is on largely economic targets,' Tripp told Al Jazeera. 'There's really no reason for there to be such high levels of civilian harm,' she said. Tripp added she was still waiting to assess how the Pentagon approaches civilian casualty investigations and transparency under Trump's second term. Questions over efficacy It remains unclear whether the administration's reliance on swift and powerful military strikes will actually prove effective in keeping the US troops out of protracted conflict. While a tenuous ceasefire continues to hold with the Houthis, the results of the US bombing campaign 'have been pretty underwhelming', the Crisis Group's Hanna said, noting that few underlying conditions have changed. The group has continued to strike vessels in the Red Sea and to launch missiles at Israel in opposition to the war in Gaza. An attack in early July prompted State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce to warn the US 'will continue to take necessary action to protect freedom of navigation and commercial shipping'. The jury also remains out on whether Trump's strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities will lead to a diplomatic breakthrough on Iran's nuclear programme, as the White House has maintained. Little progress has been made since a ceasefire was reached shortly after Tehran launched retaliatory strikes on a US base in Qatar. Crisis Group's Hanna assessed that Trump has relied on air strikes in part because they have become somewhat 'antiseptic' in US society, with their toll 'shielded from a lot of public scrutiny'. But, he added: 'There are limits in terms of what air power alone can do…That's just the reality.'
Al Jazeera
an hour ago
- Al Jazeera
US Justice Department to discuss Epstein with Ghislaine Maxwell
Officials from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) are set to interview sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell in Florida, as pressure continues to mount on the administration of US President Donald Trump over the handling of the files of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Former British socialite Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking minors on behalf of Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial in his own paedophile trafficking case. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche – Trump's former personal lawyer for his hush money trial and two federal criminal cases – was to interview Maxwell on Thursday at a federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida, multiple US media outlets reported. In a social media post on Tuesday, Blanche said that Trump 'has told us to release all credible evidence' and that if Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ 'will hear what she has to say.' A DOJ spokesman did not immediately return a message from The Associated Press seeking comment on Thursday. The person who confirmed the meeting to The Associated Press insisted on anonymity to describe a closed-door encounter. Maxwell, the daughter of the late British press baron Robert Maxwell, is the only former Epstein associate who was convicted in connection with his activities, which conspiracy theorists allege included trafficking young models for VIPs. Joyce Vance, an ex-federal prosecutor who now teaches law at the University of Alabama, said any ''new' testimony [Maxwell] offers is inherently unreliable unless backed by evidence.' 'Trump could give Ghislaine Maxwell a pardon on his last day in office, in exchange for favourable testimony now,' Vance said in a post on X. 'She knows he's her only chance for release.' 'Client list' The meeting with Maxwell marks another attempt by the Trump administration to defuse anger among the Republican president's own supporters over what they have long seen as a cover-up of sex crimes by Epstein, a wealthy financier with high-level connections. On July 7, the DOJ and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a memo saying that a review of Epstein's case yielded no new evidence, including no 'client list'. But that finding caused an uproar among Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) base, which noted that US Attorney General Pam Bondi herself had referred to a client list 'sitting on my desk right now' earlier this year. Members of Trump's base have long embraced conspiracy theories about rings of sex offenders in the highest levels of government, and some have questioned the circumstances surrounding Epstein's death, speculating that it was an orchestrated cover-up. On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Maxwell to appear before Congress next month, noting in a statement that 'the facts and circumstances surrounding both your and Mr Epstein's cases have received immense public interest and scrutiny'. The committee's Republican chair, US Representative James Comer, noted in his statement that while the DOJ was moving forward with its interview, 'It is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government's enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of you and Mr Epstein.' Democrats have also pushed for the release of the Epstein files, and on Wednesday, a Republican-led panel pushed forward a Democrat-led subcommittee subpoena demanding that the DOJ release the Epstein files. In an interview with political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen, US Representative Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat, said she would trust Congress to interview Maxwell more than the DOJ, noting the potential for 'them sanitising the information that we get, or potentially engaging in some type of threats, or potentially offering a pardon if certain things were said or not said'.
Al Jazeera
2 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
What's in the $200m deal Trump has struck with Columbia University?
New York City-based Columbia University has agreed to pay $221m to settle claims by US President Donald Trump's administration that it failed to curb anti-Semitism on campus, in exchange for the reinstatement of billions of dollars in federal funding. The deal, agreed on Wednesday, comes after sweeping university campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza during the spring and summer of 2024 and this year were criticised as veering into anti-Semitism. In February, the government cut $400m in federal research funding for Columbia in a bid to force its administrators to respond to alleged harassment of Jewish students and faculty. The unprecedented agreement marks a victory in Trump's efforts to exert greater control over higher education, including campus activism, and could offer a framework for future deals with other universities. What's in the deal Trump has struck with Columbia? Columbia has agreed to pay $200m to the government over three years, as well as making a separate $21m payment to settle claims by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In exchange, the 'vast majority' of the frozen $400m in federal funding will be reinstated, the university said. Columbia will also regain access to billions of dollars' worth of current and future grants under the deal. Columbia is required, within 30 days, to appoint an administrator who will report to the university president and will be responsible for overseeing the deal's compliance. This includes verifying that the institution ends programmes that promote 'unlawful efforts to achieve race-based outcomes, quotas [and] diversity targets'. Additionally, Columbia must review its Middle East curriculum to make sure it is 'comprehensive and balanced' and appoint new faculty staff to its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies. Columbia said the agreement establishes Bart Schwartz, of the compliance firm Guidepost Solutions, as an independent monitor who will report to the government on its progress every six months. The university will be expected to compile a report for the monitor to ensure its programmes 'do not promote unlawful DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] goals'. Why have they come to this agreement? Columbia said the agreement formalises already-announced reforms to address harassment of Jewish students and staff, including the hiring of additional public safety personnel, changes to disciplinary processes, and efforts to foster 'an inclusive and respectful learning environment'. The dispute between Columbia and the Trump administration began after Jewish students and faculty complained of harassment on campus by pro-Palestine demonstrators, while pro-Palestinian advocates accused critics of often wrongly conflating opposition to Israel with the hatred of Jews. Columbia's acting president, Claire Shipman, said the agreement marked 'an important step forward after a period of sustained federal scrutiny and institutional uncertainty'. 'The settlement was carefully crafted to protect the values that define us and allow our essential research partnership with the federal government to get back on track. Importantly, it safeguards our independence, a critical condition for academic excellence and scholarly exploration, work that is vital to the public interest,' she added. Trump hailed the settlement as 'historic' in a post on his Truth Social platform. 'Numerous other Higher Education Institutions that have hurt so many, and been so unfair and unjust, and have wrongly spent federal money, much of it from our government, are upcoming,' he wrote. How have students and activists reacted? Student activist group Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) slammed the settlement as 'a bribe'. 'Imagine selling your students out just so you can pay Trump $221 million dollars and keep funding genocide,' the group wrote on X. It added that Columbia's disciplinary action against students, including suspensions and expulsions, this week was a punishment that 'hugely' exceeded the precedent for non-Palestine-related demonstrations. Non-governmental organisation Palestine Legal accused Columbia of 'weaponising claims of antisemitism to punish those calling for freedom for Palestinians'. 'It is clear that Columbia's desire to create a community 'where all feel welcome' doesn't extend to students who call for an end to Israel's genocide,' the group posted on X. Hasan Piker, a left-wing activist, political commentator and a critic of Trump, said the US president was 'underwater on everything and Columbia is still caving to Trump on everything', adding 'it seems like some of these institutions were looking for the pretext to go right'. What steps has Columbia already taken to pacify the Trump administration? In March, Columbia agreed to a list of demands laid down by Trump in return for negotiations to reinstate its $400m federal funding, which he had revoked a month before, citing 'a failure to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment'. Among other concessions, the university agreed to ban face mask coverings during protests, as well as to install 36 campus police officers with special powers to arrest students. Earlier this month, Columbia adopted a controversial definition of anti-Semitism drafted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which has been criticised for what some say is conflating criticism of the state of Israel and Zionism with anti-Semitism. Critics have warned that the definition could be used to stifle dissent and curb academic freedom. In a letter sent to the United Nations in 2023, 60 human and civil rights organisations said the definition should not be used. 'The IHRA definition has often been used to wrongly label criticism of Israel as antisemitic, and thus chill and sometimes suppress, non-violent protest, activism and speech critical of Israel and/or Zionism, including in the US and Europe,' they wrote. On Tuesday, Columbia also announced it would suspend, expel or revoke degrees for nearly 80 students who participated in a Butler Library demonstration on its campus on May 7, 2025 and a 'Revolt for Rafah' encampment on May 31, 2024 during the university's annual alumni weekend. During protests, students demanded that the university's $14.8bn endowment stop investing in weapons makers and other companies that support Israel. Protest organiser and former student Mahmoud Khalil, 29, was the first person to be detained during the Trump administration's push to deport pro-Palestinian activists who are not US citizens. The school also said it would no longer engage with pro-Palestinian group CUAD. Which other universities has Trump set his sights on, and why? The Trump administration is focusing attention on 10 universities that it deems noteworthy in its campaign to root out anti-Semitism. These are Columbia; George Washington University; Harvard; Johns Hopkins University; New York University; Northwestern; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Minnesota; and the University of Southern California. Columbia University was the first college to see its funding slashed, but several Ivy League schools have been subjected to or threatened with funding cuts since Trump took office in January 2024. More than $2bn in total was frozen for Cornell, Northwestern, Brown and Princeton universities. In April, the administration also threatened to freeze $510m in grants to Brown University over alleged violations 'relating to antisemitic harassment and discrimination'. Harvard University was the first – and has so far been the only – major higher education institution to defy Trump's demands and fight back in federal court. This week, it argued in federal court that the Trump administration had illegally cut $2.6bn in funding in what were politically motivated attempts to reshape the institution. Are deals with other universities expected as well? Some universities are also believed to be in talks with the Trump administration, so more deals could be forthcoming. In particular, US news outlets have reported that officials from the Trump administration and Harvard are continuing negotiations, despite the court case brought by Harvard. In June, Trump posted on social media that 'if a Settlement is made on the basis that is currently being discussed, it will be 'mindbogglingly' HISTORIC, and very good for our Country'.
