Columbia students chain themselves to gates demanding Palestinian students be freed

A group of Columbia University students and alumni chained themselves to the university’s gates at 116th Street and Amsterdam Avenue on Monday afternoon in a protest calling for the release of two Palestinian Arab students currently in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, according to The Columbia Spectator.

The demonstration, which began around noon, was organized by the Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition, Jewish Voice for Peace at Columbia, and Columbia University Alumni for Palestine. In a joint statement posted on Instagram, the groups demanded the release of Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, while also calling for full financial transparency from the university, the designation of Columbia as a sanctuary campus, and unrestricted access to the school’s gates.

Protesters affixed placards bearing the names of Palestinians killed in Gaza to the iron gates and unfurled a large banner listing their four demands.

The protest follows the recent ICE detention of Mahdawi, who was reportedly taken into custody during a naturalization appointment in Vermont and is now listed under a contact number linked to ICE’s Massachusetts field office.

Khalil, meanwhile, was detained on March 8 at a Columbia-owned property and is currently being held in a detention facility in Louisiana. An immigration judge in that state recently issued a ruling approving his deportation, pending the outcome of his habeas corpus petition.