Dozens were arrested in New York City after swarming the streets to protest the arrest of ‘pro-Hamas’ rioter Mahmoud Khalil.
Student activists staged a sit-in at Columbia University on Tuesday, before hundreds of protestors descended on Washington Square Park, reported CBS News.
The group moved from the park, and marched through Lower Manhattan. Some protesters were arrested at City Hall, although police have not provided a total number of arrests as yet.
The New York Post reported at least a dozen protesters were handcuffed after they blocked the streets and refused to listen to NYPD instructions to clear the road.
‘Move cops, get out the way, we know you’re Israeli trained,’ some protesters chanted. ‘Oink, oink, piggy, piggy. We’re gonna make your lives s****y.’
Images showed keffiyeh clad protesters wearing face coverings as they marched through the streets carrying Palestinian flags.
Khalil, 29, a Palestinian who was born and raised in Syria, helped to lead protests against Israel at Columbia University last year. He also acted as a negotiator between students and university officials.
The protests were allowed to run rampant for two weeks. They were marked by violent assaults and instances of Jewish students being afraid to go to class.
Dozens were arrested in New York City after swarming the streets to protest the arrest of ‘pro-Hamas’ rioter Mahmoud Khalil
At least a dozen protesters were handcuffed after they blocked the streets and refused to listen to NYPD instructions to clear the road
Images showed keffiyeh clad protesters wearing face coverings march through the streets carrying Palestinian flags
He was taken into custody at his university-owned apartment on Saturday night by ICE agents.
The Department of Homeland Security, confirming Khalil’s arrest on Sunday, claimed he had ‘led activities aligned to Hamas’ and that the DHS action was taken ‘in coordination with the Department of State.’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on Sunday that his department would be ‘revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.’
President Donald Trump on Monday wrote that it would be the ‘first arrest of many’ as the administration cracks down on on what he called ‘pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.’
‘We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,’ the president said.
On Monday, a U.S. district judge ordered that Khalil remain in the U.S. as the court weighs a filing challenging his arrest and deportation. A detention hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
The protests at Columbia, launched last year in opposition to the war in Gaza, brought widespread media attention as tensions mounted on campus and spread to other universities around the country.
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked if the Trump administration believes it needs to charge a green card holder with a crime to deport him.
Mahmoud Khalil (pictured), who was the lead student negotiator for the pro-Palestinian encampment, was arrested by Department of Homeland Security agents on Saturday night
Student activists staged a sit-in at Columbia University on Tuesday, before hundreds of protestors descended on Washington Square Park (pictured)
The group moved from the park, and marched through Lower Manhattan. Some protesters were arrested at City Hall
‘Secretary Rubio reserves the right to revoke the visa of Mahmoud Khalil,’ Leavitt said.
She claimed that the secretary of state has the right to revoke a green card or visa for an individuals who are ‘adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests’ of the U.S.
Leavitt accused Khalil of distributing ‘pro-Hamas propaganda’ on campus and said the administration would not tolerate people coming to study in the U.S. and siding with ‘pro-terrorist organizations that have killed Americans.’
