On Tuesday, September 29, Mahmoud Khalil (SIPA ’25) celebrated the launch of his new book, No Land to Stand on: Notes from Detention. He and Donziger discussed Khalil’s life before Columbia, as well as his experiences in detention and his current lawsuits against Columbia University and the United States Government. 

On September 29, Mahmoud Khalil (SIPA ’25) celebrated the publication of his new book, No Land to Stand on: Notes from Detention, at Book Culture. He spoke in conversation with Steven Donziger, an environmental and human rights advocate who was disbarred as a lawyer after his work protesting Chevron’s impact on the environment. 

Khalil was a prominent member of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment in the spring of 2024, and was a leader in Palestinian resistance on campus. He was arrested by ICE agents in March of 2025, and was detained for the next 104 days in a detention facility in Louisiana. His arrest sparked another wave of protest movements across campus, until his release in June of 2025. Since then, Khalil has continued to be an outspoken activist for Palestinian rights and for holding the university accountable for its actions. 

The event was scheduled to begin at 7 pm on the second floor of Book Culture on 112th street. At 6:49pm, the speakers, which had been turned on, crackled and a voice was heard saying, “Mahmoud intifada Khalil, I know this is a ticketed event for Mahmoud Khalil who celebrated October 7.” The voice continued, saying “Zionist Jews are here, we are against the intifada.” The Book Culture workers turned the speakers off, and told the audience to stay seated while they went downstairs. 

Although the speakers were silent, the protest continued for around 7 minutes, with the protestors chanting into a megaphone. They continued to yell chants along the lines of “Mahmoud Khalil, we know you’re out here Mahmoud,” and asking where Khalil was. The protest consisted of about 5 people, holding a half-Israeli and half-American flag. A Book Culture staff member then went to grab the flag, during which an altercation ensued in which the protester hit the Book Culture employee repeatedly. The protester was then dragged away by another employee, and the group continued to chant, while being brought outside. 

Throughout the event the group chanted outside, occasionally coming back into the store. They continued to yell things such as “There’s Zionist Jews out here Mahmoud, if you have the courage come speak with us,” and “Mahmoud where are you?” Khalil was sitting in the office of the building during this time, and the protestors did not come to the second floor. The crowd upstairs became increasingly agitated against the protestors, with many groans and complaints, and members asking employees if they could go and help remove the protestors.

The event began at 7:16 pm, with Cody Madsen, the Vice President of Operations at Book Culture, introducing Khalil. Khalil then began by thanking the crowd for being there, mentioning that he and his wife, Noor, did their gender reveal in Book Culture. Donziger then introduced himself and thanked Khalil for being there, stating “The highest forms of government, including the institution right near us, Columbia University, tried to keep you from speaking, and here you are telling your story.” 

Khalil then discussed his childhood growing up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, where he had to flee at the age of 18 due to arrests of his co-protest organizers. He moved to another Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, where he received a scholarship to go to undergrad, and where he also met his wife. He then worked for the British embassy in Lebanon for some years, before coming to Columbia for the first time in 2018 to do an executive course at the business school in Nonprofit Management. This, he said, is what convinced him to come to the United States, and to Columbia more specifically. 

Khalil spent the majority of the talk discussing his time at Columbia and his perception of the university. He specifically identified what he termed “the Palestine exception.” Khalil explained that he found that the School of International and Public Affairs where he was getting his masters degree, allowed for organizing around all places in the Middle East except for Palestine. Events with Palestinian professors, such as Rashid Khalidi, or an event to learn about ethical travel to Palestine got designated as “special events” by the school and canceled in a way that other events for places like Turkey or Syria did not. 

“That shocked me how that anti-Palestine bigotry is institutionalized at Columbia,” stated Khalil, “especially at SIPA due to the Dean.” Dean Keren Yahri-Milo of SIPA served in the Israeli Defense Forces doing military intelligence in the years before she was the Dean at SIPA. Khalil clarified that he did not believe that Yahri-Milo was against Palestinian advocacy because she was Israeli, stating, “we have some very brilliant Israeli professors at Columbia that defended us.” However, of the administration, he said, “Whenever you think it’s the lowest they go lower. The institution is controlled by ideologues in the Board of Trustees for whom Israel is more important than academic freedom or the safety of their students.” 

Additionally, Khalil explained the rationale behind his wave of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia. He stated that students had been calling for Columbia to divest from Israel, financially and academically, since 2002. After October 7, 2023, Khalil stated that the pro-Palestinian protestors provided Jewish and Israeli students space to grieve, conducting their first protest against the genocide in Gaza on October 12. He emphasized that the Palestinian movement made it a goal to never counter-protest, understanding the grief Israelis felt for the attacks on October 7 and otherwise. He stated that, “The Palestine movement, the student movement at Columbia, was rooted in equality and justice,” focusing on coalition-building rather than attacking. 

The final highlight from the moderated Q&A centered around Khalid’s perspective on his targeting by both Columbia University and the United States government at large. Khalil stated that he “did not feel intimidated by these smear campaigns and all of that doxxing,” instead understanding that the University, and then the federal government, was mainly aiming to make an example out of someone, and had chosen him as the target. “My fight is not about whether I can stay in this country,” Khalil expressed, “it is about if anyone can speak out about Palestine in this country.” 

Khalil emphasized that he was being targeted by the government due to his speech, and was the first Green Card holder to ever be detained for this, under what is colloquially known as the “Rubio determination.” In this part of the conversation, Khalil also discussed his experience within detention centers themselves, which he described as “a stain on the US consciousness, .. a stain on the US constitution, … and to the rule of law.” 

Khalil ended by discussing why he continued to fight, despite being consistently targeted by various forces. He said, “The top echelons of the United States government are coming after me, that means I’m doing something right,” and that this gives him the hope to continue. 

“To me the fight is worth it, and I don’t think there’s any other option but to resist the powers,” concluded Khalil.

Image via Author