Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, on 4 September 2024. [Getty]
Chloe Daikh fought tears as she began her speech on the sprawling campus of Georgetown University on a crisp March day.
Standing before dozens of students and faculty, she started her speech by saying that she was there, in part, because she’s a US citizen and she thinks it’s important for US citizens to be more vocal in public. She spoke against the growing surveillance on US campuses as part of what she and many others see as a crackdown on immigrants and on education.
The gathering was one of around a hundred that took place on campuses across the US on Tuesday as part of coordinated walkouts in protest of the detention of recent Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who is currently being held at a detention facility in Louisiana.
The Palestinian activist, who is a green card holder, was “abducted and arrested” in front of his 8-month-old pregnant wife at his residence in New York on Saturday following over a year of playing a prominent role in pro-Palestinian student demonstrations at his university.
“If it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone. It makes real the threats we’ve been hearing,” Daikh told The New Arab.
In the months leading up to Khalil’s arrest, US President Donald Trump, both on the campaign trail and after the election, made repeated threats to deport pro-Palestinian protesters.
Following the news of Saturday’s arrest, Trump posted on his Truth Social account that this would be the first of many more to come.
Such threats, combined with the arrest of a high-profile student activist and a growing presence of law enforcement and surveillance on campus, created a chilling effect across the country.
“It’s really frightening. Some of my closest friends are international students, and they’re very scared,” Daikh said. “It’s really hard feeling helpless. It’s exactly what they want.”
Small, but growing response
On Monday, the day before the walkouts, the federal government sent letters to universities warning them of “potential enforcement actions if they do not … protect Jewish students on campus.”
Allegations of antisemitism have long been a characterisation of pro-Palestinian protesters by those who oppose their activities. Though studies have shown a rise of antisemitism in the US, they have also shown that the vast majority comes from the far right. The pro-Palestinian protests over the last year and a half have been found to be largely peaceful.
In this case, the arrest and detention of Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, has elicited condemnation from many outside the pro-Palestinian student movement, particular for its violation of the US Constitution’s First Amendment.
Daniela Colombi, a student at University of Maryland who has been protesting surveillance and immigration law enforcement on her campus for the past several weeks, is concerned about the emphasis on Khalil’s US residency status, noting that everyone, including non-residents, are entitled to due process.
Instead, she thinks it’s important for demonstrators to remain united, regardless of their immigration status.
“We know that if we let these attacks happen to organisers that the political targeting will continue, they will go after everybody,” Colombi told TNA.
David Frank, a professor of rhetoric and political communication at the University of Oregon, one of many campuses where a walkout took place on Tuesday, says he is hopeful about the latest organised protest since Trump took office.
“I’m hopeful it’s just one of many tactics and strategies the movement will use to protest the Trump administration,” he said. However, he has noticed that like many demonstrations, Tuesday’s walkout, which totalled several dozen students at his university, hasn’t mobilised people on campus beyond a core group of activists.
The crowd sizes at recent demonstrations are not what they were during Trump‘s first administration, or what they were at the pro-Palestinian demonstrations during former President Joe Biden’s administration. However, some organisers are seeing hope in any turnout in what they see as a growing culture of fear across US college campuses.
“It’s scary, but we’re not giving in to these attempts to force isolation on us,” said Daikh. “That’s what these fear tactics are designed to do.”
