Khalil returns to Columbia for memoir event

Mahmoud Khalil returned to Columbia University on Tuesday for a memoir event, his first campus visit since his 2025 arrest and detention by U.S. immigration authorities. About 100 people attended, according to event coverage. Khalil discussed his memoir, No Land to Stand On, and accused Columbia of seeking to erase him and Palestinian voices on campus. He also criticized the university’s response to the 2024 student protests, during which New York police cleared demonstrators from its Manhattan campus. Columbia said at the time that the protests presented a safety threat. Khalil said Columbia could have modeled how universities handle difficult campus debates and protests. He accused the institution of choosing repression and said it had failed to protect him from harassment before his arrest. Those allegations are his account and were not independently established in the event coverage. A Columbia spokesperson said the university supports faculty members’ right to organize academic events and remains committed to debate and dialogue across differing perspectives. The spokesperson added that an invitation to speak does not mean the university endorses a speaker’s views. The...