Activist Mahmoud Khalil sues Columbia University over alleged harassment of pro-Palestinian students

NEW YORK: Palestinian-American activist Mahmoud Khalil and other pro-Palestinian student advocates have filed a lawsuit against Columbia University, accusing the institution of failing to adequately protect students from what they described as sustained harassment linked to their activism.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan on Monday, alleges that Columbia violated US civil rights protections by failing to respond appropriately to threats, doxxing and other forms of harassment directed at students because of their perceived Arab or Muslim background or their support for Palestinian rights.

Khalil became a prominent figure in the Trump administration’s actions against pro-Palestinian campus protests after immigration agents detained him in March 2025 at the entrance of his university residence. At the time, he was a lawful permanent US resident and had not been charged with a crime.

The legal action was also brought by the SIPA Palestine Working Group and its president, Mohammad Zubairi. The plaintiffs argue that the university was aware of widespread hostility toward pro-Palestinian students but failed to take sufficient steps to protect them.

Speaking at a press conference at Columbia where the lawsuit was announced, Khalil accused the university of allowing what he called “institutionalized anti-Palestinian bigotry” to become entrenched across the institution and said its board of trustees had supported that environment.

The dispute comes as Columbia continues to grapple with tensions surrounding protests over the Gaza war. A major pedestrian route running through the campus has remained closed for almost three years as the university weighs security concerns against calls for a return to normal campus life and greater openness.

“We are suing because no student, regardless of their background, should go through the hell that Columbia put us through over all these years,” Khalil said.

Columbia declined to comment on the lawsuit, but a spokeswoman said: “Creating a campus environment where every member of our community feels welcome, supported, and safe is fundamental to who we are as a university. It is also a responsibility we take seriously.”

University saw ‘security risks’, lawsuit says

Khalil said he began reporting harassment during the spring semester in 2023, several months before Israel went to war in Gaza.

The complaint said that instead of investigating reported harassment, Columbia treated pro-Palestinian protests as “security risks” and revised its policies to treat any on-campus criticism of Israel’s military or government conduct as subject to discipline.

“Defendants’ failure to respond to Mr. Khalil’s, Mr. Zubairi’s, and other PWG members’ legitimate reports of ongoing harassment and violence, and the retaliatory actions they actively took in response to these reports, placed PWG members at risk of violence and caused sustained, ongoing harm,” the complaint said.

The protests at Columbia divided the university, with many supporting the protesters and others saying they felt unsafe or considered some activity ‘antisemitic’.

They led to the spread of so-called solidarity encampments on dozens of college campuses, and to the resignation of Columbia’s president.

Possible deportation

Khalil is an Algerian citizen born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria.

He spent 104 days in a Louisiana jail following his arrest, missing the birth of his first child, before being released on bail.

Khalil still faces possible deportation, after a federal appeals court in Philadelphia said a district court judge lacked jurisdiction when he ordered Khalil’s release from custody last year.

SIPA is short for Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, where Khalil had been a graduate student.

Khalil also sued Columbia in March 2025, less than one week after his arrest, challenging the university’s disclosure of student disciplinary records to a House of Representatives committee.