mayor of new york city Zoran Mamdani It was also the one-year anniversary of Khalil’s detention, and he was slammed for having breakfast with Mahmoud Khalil and his family at Gracie Mansion. Mamdani said that he and his wife Rama Duwaj were honored to welcome Mahmoud Khalil, his wife Noor and their son Deen to the mayor’s residence to break the fast together. “Mahmoud is a New Yorker and he belongs in New York City,” Mamdani wrote while posting a photo in which Mahmoud Khalil can be seen smiling at the breakfast table.“One year ago, Mahmoud was detained by federal agents as he walked home from iftar with his wife Noor, flown to Louisiana, and then held in an ICE facility for months. During that time, he was forced to miss the birth of his first child. All while exercising his First Amendment rights to protest the ongoing genocide in Palestine,” the New York City mayor posted. “Yet, even in the face of cruelty, there is beauty. New Yorkers spoke out in solidarity. The city refused to look away. Mahmoud won his freedom and a father was finally reunited with his children,” the post read. MAGA activist Laura Loomer called the move “outrageous” and said the New York City mayor was a national security threat. “Are you planning to invite the emir of Balat to your home too?” one wrote, referring to the arrest of two Islamic State supporters for trying to detonate an explosive device in front of Mamdani’s residence during protests. “As a Jewish New Yorker, I am absolutely offended by this photo. This man is harassing Jewish students and is anti-Semitic! How could you think this photo could be posted on a government social network? As a Jewish community advocate, I want an immediate apology!” wrote another. “This is incredibly offensive to the Jewish community as Mahmoud Khalil has been actively harassing Jewish students on campus for nearly three years. Whether you agree with his deportation or not, his actions are abhorrent and should not be celebrated by the mayor,” wrote the CEO of Jewish organization Ashe.
One year anniversary of Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest by ICE
Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by ICE on March 8 last year on the Columbia University campus. He was a leader and negotiator for pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. Although the federal government attempted to deport him, a court ordered his release. “It’s been exactly one year now. It’s been a year since that horrific night that marked the beginning of a brutal wave of arrests against protesters for nothing more than telling the truth. Although we have never met, I have known each other since I was detained in Jena, Louisiana when Noor called “I have carried you with me every day since you were taken away. I remember thinking: not again, not another one of us. From that moment on, a part of my heart was tied to your struggle,” Khalil wrote for The Guardian on the first anniversary of his detention.“I’m free, but I’m not free. I took that detention center in Jena with me. I took with me my other detainees – Alex, Ziad, Marcel, Juan and Mamouki. I took with me the cold and the fluorescent lights. I took with me the night they came to arrest me, I walked out The night I went, and every night in between. I carried the knowledge that while I was here, someone else was still there. My freedom was partial as long as someone was caged for the same reasons I was caged.”
