Latest news with #antiPalestinian
The Independent
3 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Mahmoud Khalil claims he was detained by Trump admin after right-wing group tipped off ICE and Ted Cruz
There is evidence to 'strongly suggest' that federal officials acted on tips and lobbying from right-wing and pro-Israel advocacy groups to detain Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil in March, according to a Freedom of Information Act request filed Thursday. 'For years, these anti-Palestinian doxxing groups have served as agents of repression, weaponizing inflammatory rhetoric and conflating criticism of Israel with hate speech in order to chill activism for Palestinian rights,' Ayla Kadah, an attorney the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing Khalil as he appeals his case, said in a statement. 'Now, evidence seems to point to the Trump administration colluding with them,' she added. The FOIA request seeks information from federal offices involved in immigration enforcement and investigation, like the FBI and the Departments of State, Justice, and Homeland Security. It accuses federal lawyers of relying on posts from online monitoring groups that claim to be tracking antisemitism, though some critics say the groups engage in unsafe doxxing campaigns. The Independent has contacted these agencies for comment. The FOIA request pays particular attention to the Zionist group Betar USA, and whether its calls to deport students influenced the effort to detain and deport Khalil. The advocacy group is known for publicly naming pro-Palestinian activists on social media and urging their deportation, and has claimed to have shared 'thousands' of targets with the Trump administration. (The administration has not publicly confirmed any contacts with the group.) Betar has also handed out mock pagers to pro-Palestine activists, a seeming reference to the likely Israeli exploding pager operation that killed both Hezbollah fighters and civilians. The FOIA request points to alleged ties between Betar and federal officials. Ross Glick, then the head of the group, has claimed he spoke with Senator Ted Cruz in the days before Khalil's March 8 arrest, as well as briefed Senator John Fetterman and aides for Senator James Lankford. 'I absolutely deny any involvement with this group whatsoever,' Senator Fetterman said in a statement to The Independent. 'I do not support private organizations coming up with deportation lists, and in any event, I would never participate or assist in that.' Betar shared a video of Glick briefly speaking with Fetterman at the Capitol in late 2024. The Independent has contacted the offices of Cruz and Lankford for comment. 'The correlation is clear, and not a coincidence: to date, not a single reported visa revocation and detention of an individual based on pro-Palestine activism occurred absent prior doxxing,' the FOIA request reads. The federal government does not accuse Khalil of breaking any laws; rather, Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked a rarely used, controversial provision of federal law to declare Khalil's activities could harm U.S. foreign policy interests and then stripped his green card. The FOIA request, in part, seeks to probe what kind of information the State Department used from federal officials in reaching this decision. The Independent filed a similar FOIA request shortly after Khalil's arrest, with no response thus far from federal officials. Khalil, who is married to a U.S. citizen and held legal permanent resident status at the time of his arrest, is currently being kept at a detention facility in Louisiana. He is challenging his imprisonment in immigration and federal court. This week, a federal judge in New Jersey held that the administration's decision to revoke Khalil's green card was likely unconstitutional, though the court stopped short of ordering Khalil's release. "The Secretary's determination deserves, and gets the highest respect,' Judge Michael Farbiarz wrote. 'But arbitrary enforcement can also be a danger, when one person is given the job, if his determination veers too far away from the standard set down by Congress. Here, the Secretary's did."
The National
3 days ago
- Politics
- The National
Trump's Harvard assault is more about power than Palestine
The US government led by President Donald Trump is at war, but not with another country, terrorist organisation, or even amorphous threats like poverty or drugs. Instead, it is conducting an assault against arguably the most prestigious, and certainly most famous, US university: Harvard. The school long predates the republic and has educated generations of its leaders. But now it is besieged by Washington. This confrontation is best understood through a series of ever-widening concentric circles, broadening from the most granular to near-totalising Trump goals. As with so many things connected with this President, it all begins with a blunder. But beyond the blunder, there's a perennial US political theme at the core of this tragicomedy: anti-Palestinian animus. At heart, it's a power struggle. Mr Trump is making good on his campaign pledge to act as an American strongman, so he's lashing out in all directions to bring to heel any sources of authority or potential challenge beyond his direct control. It's a stereotypical strongman's power play, yet unprecedented in US history. Within the executive branch, he's going after independent agencies, inspectors general, and anyone viewed as insufficiently loyal to him personally. He is attempting to squeeze law firms into providing free services to his allies and refusing to represent his opponents. He is using all available means to intimidate the media. He is continuously inveighing against courts and judges he doesn't deem to be co-operative enough. And he is attempting to gain control over the US higher education system. The Harvard confrontation began on April 11, when the administration sent a letter demanding direct oversight of much of the school's operations, because it had supposedly not done enough to tackle 'anti-Semitism' following Israel's attack on Gaza. The letter was later confirmed to have been a draft issued by mistake, but the administration followed up with even more sweeping demands that the university surrender to the White House. Ultimately, even ideological conformity can't be enough. Control over the entire register of truth beckons as the absolute guarantor of authority Harvard has flatly refused to submit, and it is suing the government. The university's president, Alan Garber, put the case bluntly: 'No government – regardless of which party is in power – should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.' The Trump administration does not deny that this is what it seeks, and it has effectively confirmed this by suspending virtually all co-operation in response. Harvard is under at least eight new federal investigations and faces almost $4 billion in frozen or eliminated grants. In its latest escalation, the government is trying to block Harvard from accepting any international students on the grounds that it has 'created a hostile learning environment for Jewish students'. This administration appears to conflates all support for Palestine or Palestinians with anti-Semitism, as indicated by a new compliance review based on media reports of medical students wearing Palestinian scarves or pro-Palestinian buttons. Since March, US consular officers have been required to scour social media accounts of prospective international students seeking visas for signs of sympathies towards extremist and terrorist organisations, effectively defined as anything indicating support for the Palestinians. The Trump administration, though, includes several recent appointees alleged to have track records in right-wing anti-Jewish rhetoric and conspiracy theories, including Kingsley Wilson, the new deputy Pentagon press secretary. By framing the assault on Harvard as a battle against Hamas-supporting anti-Semitism, the administration has prompted some of its critics to insist that they, too, are appalled by anti-Gaza war protests. But nobody is fooled. Some supporters of Israel are extreme and cynical enough to applaud even this kind of backing. But most Jewish Americans, including diehard supporters of Israel at Harvard, understand that efforts to gain a stranglehold on higher education have nothing to do with Israel. These efforts will obviously be at the expense, and not in defence, of Jewish Americans, especially in the long run. The attack on Harvard is part of a broader pressure campaign against a range of universities around the country, with losses to Cornell of more than $1 billion, Princeton $210 million, Northwestern $800 million, Johns Hopkins $800 million, and so on. But Harvard is leading the pushback, and it may have the resources and credibility to prevail. Beyond the originating error, the mendacity of conflating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, and the drive to control colleges, suggest that the war on Harvard is a subset of the administration's generalised battle against knowledge and verifiable, objective fact. The vast majority of cuts already made to executive agencies and departments have been at the expense of knowledge-production and its translation into policy. There is a drive to obliterate politically incorrect parts of history, aspects of current reality like climate change, or even public values like accurate weather forecasting or basic public health data collection. The attack on the US higher education system by this administration is all the more bizarre because it claims to be seeking to revive the American manufacturing economy and bolster global competitiveness. But the apparent perceived political threat from independent institutions and higher education seems to override those obvious considerations. Worse, the excellence of US higher education is one of the country's most meaningful competitive advantages. The Trump administration is threatening this invaluable legacy, along with the long-standing US ability to attract the world's best minds and spirits. The viciousness and anti-Semitism of Nazi Germany and the repression and intellectual suffocation of the Soviet Union were invaluable assets to the US, especially when contrasted with relative US freedom and openness. The Trump administration vows to 'remove improper ideology' from institutions like the Smithsonian Museum network while demanding 'viewpoint diversity' at Harvard and other universities. This effectively means, 'say — and do — what we want, or else … ' Ultimately, though, even ideological conformity can't be enough. Control over the entire register of truth inevitably beckons as the only absolute guarantor of authority.
Al Bawaba
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
Itamar Ben-Gvir's son forms anti-Palestinian special force
Published May 18th, 2025 - 08:51 GMT ALBAWABA - According to several videos flooding social media, the son of far-right Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir reportedly formed a special force to track and assault Palestinian workers to turn them over to the police. The videos sparked outrage among human rights and pro-Palestine activists who described the issue as "inhumane." According to Quds News Network, Gvir's son was captured alongside two of his friends, tailing Palestinians who were spotted going down a wall using a rope and running after them. Itamar Ben-Gvir's son forms anti-Palestinian special force, sparks outrage Hard-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's son has formed a special force to pursue and assault Palestinian workers and hand them over to the Israeli police. — Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 18, 2025 Itamar Ben-Gvir, who was newly appointed by Israel as the Minister of National Security in 2025, is no stranger to such actions, as he has voiced his anti-Palestinian stance throughout several videos. Two weeks ago, he was seen visibly angry after being confronted by several pro-Palestine activists protesting the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza, following his visit to the US Capitol in Washington. The ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza has resulted in the killing of at least 53,000 Palestinians and the injuring of more than 120,000 since Oct. 7, 2023. © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba (
