We will not stand idly by: JVP Statement on the Trump regime’s detention of Palestinian student Mahmoud Khalil

Jewish Voice for Peace demands the Trump administration release Palestinian student Mahmoud Khalil from ICE detention. The detention of Mahmoud is further proof that we are on the brink of a full takeover by a repressive, authoritarian regime. 

As Jews of conscience, we know our history and we know where this leads. It’s on all of us to stand up now. Many of us are the descendants of people who resisted European fascism and far too many of our ancestors lost their lives in that struggle. We call on the strength of our ancestors and we call on our tradition, which teaches us we must never stand idly by: לא תעמד על דם רעך (Leviticus 19:16). 

On Saturday night, Mahmoud, who recently earned his graduate degree at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, was returning to his New York apartment after Iftar. As Khalil and his 8-months-pregnant wife entered their home, they were intercepted by plain clothes DHS agents who abducted Mahmoud. He has been held in ICE detention since then and now a permanent resident could face imminent deportation because of his political speech.

The Trump administration’s outrageous detention of Mahmoud Khalil is designed to sow terror among students and immigrant communities in order to silence people calling for Palestinian freedom and to feed the mass deportation machine. We remain steadfast in our commitment to Palestinian freedom, to protecting free speech and the right to protest, and to defending immigrants and all under attack by the Trump regime.   

The blatantly unconstitutional detention of Mahmoud Khalil is another step in the far-Right’s plan to target all who oppose their authoritarian agenda. All of these actions are also in service of sharpening the tools that the administration will then use to fully dismantle social justice movements, higher education, and civil liberties. The only way forward is to build a united force against the ascendant far-Right. It will take all of us.  

The Trump regime platforms Nazis, white supremacists, and Christian nationalists. It is endangering Jewish people and using the guise of fighting antisemitism to dismantle our Constitutionally protected rights to free speech and dissent. 

Trump’s brutal executive orders and now kidnapping of a student endanger all people, beginning with those most vulnerable and those speaking out for justice. This is how fascism works and the only defense is to refuse to be divided or silenced. History has shown us that we cannot stand idly by — and we will not.

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Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world. JVP organizes a grassroots, multiracial, cross-class, intergenerational movement of U.S. Jews into solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle, guided by a vision of justice, equality and dignity for all people.