US Campus Protests Demand Release of Detained Pro-Palestinian Academics and Students

New York, MINA – Coordinated protests were held this week at Columbia University, Georgetown University, and Tufts University, as students and faculty rallied to demand the release of three detained individuals: Badar Khan Suri, Mahmoud Khalil, and Rumeisa Ozturk, Palestine Chronicle reported.

Suri, a scholar affiliated with Georgetown, Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student at Columbia, and Ozturk, a Turkish Ph.D. student at Tufts, were reportedly arrested by US authorities for their pro-Palestinian activism.

Dr. Nader Hashemi, a professor at Georgetown, called the arrests “a policy aimed at silencing pro-Palestinian free expression.” Hashemi, who visited Suri in a Texas detention center, reported harsh conditions and described a growing climate of fear targeting immigrant and international students.

Dr. Elliott Colla, also from Georgetown, emphasized the broader threat to academic freedom, stating, “If they can do this to one academic, they can do the same to all of us.”

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Weekly protests continue at all three campuses, with demonstrators calling the detainees “political prisoners” and denouncing what they see as retaliation against those expressing solidarity with Palestinians.

Khalil was arrested on March 8 and had been active in last year’s protests at Columbia against Israel’s war on Gaza. The broader crackdown by US immigration authorities has led to over 1,000 visa revocations, leaving many students in legal limbo.

The student movement, which began at Columbia, has now spread to more than 50 universities across the country. Over 3,100 students and faculty have been arrested nationwide, triggering backlash from civil rights and academic groups. []

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)

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