Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University pro-Palestinian protest leader, filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that US President Donald Trump’s administration had colluded with several pro-Israel groups to prosecute him for his advocacy.

The lawsuit is “about exposing the network of organizations, political actors and institutions that work together to criminalize solidarity with Palestine,” Khalil, who became the face of Trump’s crackdown on anti-Israel and allegedly antisemitic pro-Palestinian activism when he was arrested by immigration officers in March 2025, said at a press conference at New York City Hall.

“For decades, the state of Israel and the Zionist organizations in this country that operate on behalf of Israel have understood that their conduct cannot survive honest scrutiny,” he said. “So rather than defend or change their conduct, they resorted to making scrutiny itself impossible. They brand criticism of a government as hatred of a people. They rebrand documented atrocities as debates.”

Khalil was arrested by federal immigration authorities in June 2025, with the Trump administration saying he was a threat to US interests and had committed fraud on his green card application. He was held in detention for several months until his court-ordered release, and has been battling deportation in court since.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan federal court, alleges that the government’s actions violate the Ku Klux Klan Act, an 1871 anti-conspiracy law intended to restrict government coordination with vigilante groups. The act was also used to prosecute the 2017 Charlottesville march’s organizers for planning to incite racist violence.

The complaint alleges there had been a “conspiracy” among private pro-Israel entities, including the Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission and Betar USA, and senior Trump........

© The Times of Israel