Pro-Palestinian demonstrators are gathered outside of the Israeli Consulate and marched on streets to protest Israel’s attack on Gaza, Palestine, in San Francisco, California, United States on 18 March 2025. [Getty]
A “Global Day of Action” brought out thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters to the streets of cities around the world Tuesday, as they demanded an end to the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, an arms embargo following Israel’s recent military assault on Gaza, and an end to US airstrikes on Yemen.
US President Donald Trump has encouraged these actions, vowing that Khalil’s arrest would be the first of many to come, approving Israel’s “Ramadan massacre” on Gaza, and watching the airstrikes on Yemen from his golf course while wearing a red Make American Great Again baseball cap.
At dusk in Washington, DC, in front of the White House, a student read aloud the recently penned letter by Khalil, from his detention in Louisiana.
“My name is Mahmoud Khalil, and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law,” the letter begins.
“Who has the right to have rights? It is certainly not the humans crowded into the cells here,” the letter continues.
The arrest and detention earlier this month of the recent Columbia University graduate from his residence in New York has galvanised protesters over concern over his fate, that of other activists, and the future of the First Amendment. Since then, demonstrations for his release have been growing in size and frequency. This “Global Day of Action” was a quickly planned event that nevertheless saw large turnouts.
“We had a good turnout—in the thousands—for a last-minute mobilisation,” Laila Ali, a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement in the San Francisco Bay Area, told The New Arab.
“The Trump administration and imperialist powers are trying to sow fear in the diaspora’s organising. We know the power of the people is stronger, and we won’t back down,” she added.
There appears to be a growing consensus among protest organisers of the importance of speaking up in the face of government intimidation. Since Khalil’s arrest around 10 days ago, several other student activists have been arrested, deported, or punished in other ways for their political activities. This is in addition to fears among the country’s migrant communities of mass deportation.
Tuesday’s demonstrations saw the turnout of multiple communities, supporting one another during the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant crackdown.
With many of the demonstrations taking place around sunset during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, some of the organisers brought dates and water for protesters to break their fast.
