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2025 March wk4 -- March wk3P2 -- March wk3 -- March wk3P3 -- March wk2P2 -- March wk2 -- March wk1P3 -- March wk1P2 -- March wk1 -- Feb wk4P2 -- Feb wk4 -- Click here for an overview by week in 2025
2024 Dec wk5 -- Dec wk4 P2 -- Dec wk4 -- Click here for an overview by week in 2024

Updates March and earlier, 2025-'24 Actual: The arrest of Makmoud Khalil and aftermath & Inside the Ramallah hotel housing Gaza’s cancer patients & Beauty in Gaza: Noor’s tent salon in the rubble   Earlier: Why is America afraid of ‘No Other Land’?... & For Israel, ceasefire is a continuation of war by other means... Opinion: & Netanyahu’s plan to deprive and rule in Gaza will fail again & Ramadan in Gaza: Ruins and unshakable faith & Overview special reports

November 28 - 24 and earler stories, 2024 Is Netanyahu immune from ICC arrest warrant-NO!   TRIBUTES TO MOTHERS AND CHILDREN

Shireen Abu Akleh In commemoration of Shireen Abu Akleh, the 'voice of Al Jazeera' killed while revealing the true face of israel Updated: December 6, 2024: Attacks, arrests, threats, censorship: The high risks of reporting the Israel-Gaza war   Click here for earlier stories/news

March 25 - 23,2025 A timeline of Israel’s weaponisation of aid to Gaza... and Palestinians in Gaza attacked as they comply with Israeli evacuation order... and UNRWA: Banning aid is a collective punishment on Gaza... Food for thought: If it is not 'kristall-(sic)clear by now the attempted genocide of the Palestinian nation simply goes on while the West keeps saying: "Wir haben es nicht gewuesst". Read more and decide for yourself. And The full story of political prisoner Mahmoud Khalil March 23 - 20, 2025 Food for thought: A jewish saying: if you kill one human being you kill humanity. How true. And even morseo: they're to become no.1 in the worldbook of records. Read more.

and Gaza is being starved and bombed again. Why are we allowing it? And 'I was a human shield' and March 10 - 12, 2025 Release Mahmoud... March 20 - 17, 2025 Read more about idf atricities here March 20 - 18, 2025 Israel resumed its relentless bombing of Gaza Read more about "The unmistakable sounds of genocide" i.e. acts of inhumanity of the idf nazis and their co-killers of the innocent.

March 15 - 13, 2025 Food for thought: 'genocidal' targeting of reproductive facilities in Gaza Remember mengele and ask yourself: who are the 'non-humans'? Or does your 'collective memory' censors yours? Read more here March 13 - 11, 2025 Food for thought: Nobody interrupts the psychopaths whom keep bombing; killing civilians and with it also of Palestinian women who only want to give birth to a new generation. Gino d'Artali Read more and decide for yourself and March 11 - 9, 2025 <<Starvation as a weapon... Question: who really are The non-humans? Read more and decide for yourself

When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali.



 
Noor Abdalla - Mahmoud Khalil
Al Jazeera - March 23, 2025
<<Detained Columbia activist Khalil’s wife slams claims he is Hamas supporter
Noor Abdalla calls Trump administration allegations that Khalil supports Hamas ‘ridiculous’ and ‘disgusting’.
Detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil’s wife has refuted allegations that her husband is a Hamas supporter, calling the accusations by the United States government “ridiculous” and “disgusting”. In an interview with US media outlet CBS published on Sunday, Khalil’s pregnant wife Noor Abdalla denied assertions by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt that Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University in New York, was distributing Hamas flyers. No evidence has been presented by the US government to back up this allegation. “I think it’s ridiculous. It’s disgusting … that that’s the tactic that they’re using to make him look like this person that he’s not, literally,” she said. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Khalil on March 8, and is holding him in a detention facility in Louisiana, as part of US President Donald Trump’s pledge to crack down on – and in some cases deport – students who joined protests against Israel’s war on Gaza that swept US university campuses last year. Trump has accused the student protesters of participating in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity”, without offering evidence to support these claims. Khalil served as a spokesperson and negotiator last year for the pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the Columbia campus. He has said that his detention is a consequence of exercising his right to free speech and has described himself as a “political prisoner”. On March 10, a US district judge in New York temporarily blocked Khalil’s deportation, and then further extended that prohibition two days later. “It’s so simple: he just doesn’t want his people to be murdered,” Abdalla told CBS. “He doesn’t want to see little kids losing limbs.” The Trump administration is pushing to deport Khalil under a rarely used provision of an immigration law that gives the secretary of state power to remove any non-citizen whose presence in the US is deemed to have “adverse foreign policy consequences”. A graduate student until December, Khalil was previously in the US on a student visa but has since obtained a green card, making him a lawful permanent resident of the country. The number of Palestinians killed since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023 has crossed 50,000, and more than 113,000 have been wounded, Gaza health officials said on Sunday. On Tuesday, Israel broke a nearly two-month-long ceasefire agreement with Hamas, ramping up its attacks on Gaza and killing more than 670 people since then, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
Discrimination in the US
Wiping away tears, Abdalla expressed her frustration over the repeated need to defend herself and her husband against the Trump administration’s accusations. She said it reminded her of discrimination she has faced as a Muslim in the US. “In New York the other day, me and my husband were walking and someone called me a ‘terrorist’,” she said. “I think most Muslims in this country can relate to that. It doesn’t matter what I say … that’s what they’re going to think of me.”
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA>> https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/23/detained-columbia-activist-khalils-wife-slams-claims-he-is-hamas-supporter

Al Jazeera - March 26, 2025
<<Members of US Congress demand the release of activist Mahmoud Khalil
Members of the US Congress have demanded the release of student activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested by immigration agents this month over his participation in student protests to support Palestinians.>>
Video: https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2025/3/26/members-of-us-congress-demand-the-release-of-activist-mahmoud-khalil 

Read the full story from beginning, March 19 'till March 25, 2025 below

Al Jazeera - March 19, 2025
<<Palestinian Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil decries arrest in the US
Columbia University graduate, who Trump administration is seeking to deport over role in pro-Palestinian protests, speaks out for first time since arrest. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate who the United States government is seeking to deport for his role in pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year, has called himself a “political prisoner” in his first direct comments since his arrest. The student activist was arrested on March 8 by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after he and his pregnant wife, Noor Abdalla – a US citizen – returned from a dinner in New York.In a letter made public on Tuesday, Khalil decried his arrest and the conditions facing detainees in US immigration facilities.
“My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana, where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law,” Khalil wrote. He added that “the agents threatened to arrest her [Noor] for not leaving my side”. He was taken into custody without a warrant, and the DHS agents withheld details about his arrest, according to footage of the arrest that was made public by his family last Friday. In his letter, Khalil wrote, “DHS would not tell me anything … I did not know the cause of my arrest or if I was facing immediate deportation.” His lawyer, Amy Greer, said Khalil is a lawful permanent US resident. Experts have underscored it is rare for green card holders to be threatened with deportation, except in cases of serious crimes. In April 2024, students across the US mobilised to demand an end to their universities’ complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza, which followed an attack led by the Palestinian group Hamas in southern Israel in October 2023 in which an estimated 1,139 people were killed and more than 200 taken captive. Since then, Israel’s relentless ground, air and sea military campaign has killed nearly 50,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 110,000 others, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Thousands more are missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings and presumed dead. A United Nations committee found in November last year that Israel’s warfare in the besieged territory is consistent with the characteristics of genocide and accused it of “using starvation as a method of war”.
Trump’s fierce reaction
As anti-war protests grew nationwide, demonstrations at New York’s Columbia University drew particularly close media attention owing to their size.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has accused Khalil, who played a key role in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the university, of engaging in “activities aligned with Hamas”, though no evidence has been provided. Trump has accused the student protesters of participating in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity”, without offering evidence to support the claims. Khalil said his arrest was a direct result of his activism for a free Palestine and an end to Israeli attacks on Gaza. “My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night,” he wrote in the letter. Khalil also drew parallels between his situation and the use of administrative detention by Israel, where Palestinians are often imprisoned without trial or charge.
“For Palestinians, imprisonment without due process is commonplace.”
He said he refused to be forced into silence, adding “it is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle for their complete freedom”.
“I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child.”
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES>> https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/19/political-prisoner-palestinian-mahmoud-khalil-decries-arrest-in-the-us

Al Jazeera - March 19, 2025 - By Al Jazeera Staff
<<US court rejects Trump bid to dismiss Mahmoud Khalil deportation challenge
Judge Jesse Furman says effort to deport Palestinian rights advocate is ‘exceptional’ and requires ‘careful’ review.
A federal court in the United States has dismissed an effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to dismiss Palestinian rights activist Mahmoud Khalil’s legal challenge against his detention and deportation. Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and legal permanent resident, has been held by the government since March 8 in a push to deport him over his participation in campus protests for Gaza last year.
On Wednesday, Judge Jesse Furman ruled that Khalil’s legal request for a judicial review against his detention, known as a habeas corpus petition, must proceed. The Trump administration had asked the court to reject the challenge. Furman noted that Khalil is arguing that the effort to deport him violates his rights to free speech and due process, which are guaranteed under the US Constitution. “These are serious allegations and arguments that, no doubt, warrant careful review by a court of law; the fundamental constitutional principle that all persons in the United States are entitled to due process of law demands no less,” Fruman wrote in his ruling. He described Khalil’s ordeal as an “exceptional case”. However, the judge decided that his New York-based court cannot adjudicate the case, saying that the matter should be transferred to New Jersey, where Khalil was held when the challenge was filed. The government sought to move the case to Louisiana, a Republican-dominated state, where Khalil is currently detained in an immigration enforcement facility. Furman said that his previous order barring the government from deporting Khalil must remain in place while the case is under review. But he did not rule on the activist’s request to be released on bail, leaving the matter to the New Jersey court that will oversee the petition. He ordered the court clerk to transfer the petition “immediately”, but there is no exact date for when the New Jersey Court will rule or schedule hearings on the case. The Trump administration is pushing to deport Khalil under a rarely used provision of an immigration law that gives the secretary of state power to remove any non-citizen whose presence in the US is deemed to have “adverse foreign policy consequences”. The US government has not charged Khalil with a crime. Instead, US officials have accused him of “activities aligned to Hamas”. But Khalil’s supporters say he engaged in peaceful protests against Columbia University’s ties to the Israeli military as part of the wave of campus demonstrations that swept the country last year. Khalil’s detention has raised concerns about Trump’s willingness to scuttle free speech in his crackdown on Palestinian rights advocacy in the US. The activist, whose wife is a US citizen and eight months pregnant, was arrested late at night by immigration enforcement agents and transferred to two different facilities without his family or lawyers being notified. Critics have likened his treatment to forced disappearances by authoritarian governments. “The Trump administration is seeking to send a message with the unlawful and deplorable disappearance of Mr Khalil,” Hannah Flamm, acting senior policy director at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), told Al Jazeera last week. “This is not the first occasion when the US government has weaponised immigration enforcement to separate families and to terrorise communities. But Mr Khalil’s arrest represents a significant departure and profound violation of American free speech rights.” Khalil released a statement from his confinement late on Tuesday, describing himself as a political prisoner.
“My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night,” he wrote.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA>> https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/19/us-court-rejects-trump-bid-to-dismiss-mahmoud-khalil-deportation-challenge

Al Jazeera - March 20, 2025 - By Tamara Turki Palestinian-Austrian journalist currently attending Columbia Journalism School
<<Columbia, I want my money back
As a Palestinian student, my time at Columbia University has been marked by fear, uncertainty and intimidation.
On March 5, I watched dozens of police officers – invited onto campus by Columbia University’s Barnard College to break up a peaceful sit-in calling for the reversal of expulsions of three pro-Palestine students – trample and slam my classmates to the ground, arresting nine of them The violent police raid was a new escalation in the administration’s ongoing campaign to quash Palestinian activism on campus under the guise of combating anti-Semitism. On March 8, the administration escalated further. It allowed the Department of Homeland Security to detain Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil at his university housing in New York, without a judicial warrant, in front of his eight-month pregnant wife. Mahmoud’s arbitrary detention left many of my well-intentioned American classmates and professors feeling uneasy because it poses an existential threat to the principles of free speech, rule of law, and respect for human rights that form the cornerstone of their identity as citizens in an American democracy.
But for us Palestinians in the United States, there is nothing surprising about the way Mahmoud is being treated. Many of us have already lost employment, access to education and social networks for speaking against American presidents bypassing the Leahy Law to ship weapons to the Israeli military – weapons that are used against our families in the occupied territory. We have always understood such principles to be illusory.
When in February Columbia mandated antidiscrimination training to the entire student body, stating that calling someone a Zionist may constitute discriminatory harassment, no one batted an eye. When the school accused a Palestinian undergraduate student of discriminatory harassment over her editorial in the student newspaper calling for divestment from Israel, there was no outcry either. It hurts to watch those around me now decry Mahmoud’s detainment as an unprecedented attack on free speech, which they have a vested interest to fight against, when their wilful ignorance of the targeted attacks against those of us considered “too vocal” in our criticism of Zionism and Israel laid the groundwork for this current crisis. On March 11 on the last day of midterms, Department of Homeland Security agents entered two university residences with judicial warrants to search for students who had participated in protests. I find it insulting that Columbia President Katrina Armstrong claims to be “heartbroken” over these developments while leading an administration that actively criminalises pro-Palestine speech and gives Zionist students and faculty carte blanche to orchestrate social media campaigns calling for deportations of students. Even worse are the litany of disingenuous emails that she’s sent out to students regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE’s) presence on campus and her deliberate refusal to acknowledge Mahmoud’s experience or even speak his name. Every Columbia faculty member and student who spoke up for Palestine came to see the agonising video of Mahmoud’s arrest, captured by his wife, as a warning of what might await us all. With two months until graduation, I – a Palestinian journalist who continues to report on the student movement – now find myself scanning for threats in everyday moments. I fear each ring of the doorbell or approaching stranger could be law enforcement coming to place me in handcuffs and ship me somewhere judicial sympathy would be unlikely. I’ve come to recognise Mahmoud’s ordeal as part of Columbia’s broader pattern of making examples of a select few to emotionally terrorise the rest of us against daring to challenge the status quo. Last week, on the very same day ICE agents entered university residences, Columbia suspended, expelled and revoked the degrees of 22 students who participated in last spring’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment and the Hind’s Hall occupation – two impactful acts of protest that marked the beginning of the administration’s relentless campaign to crush pro-Palestinian activism on campus. For those of us “fortunate” enough to remain unscathed, threats of disciplinary sanctions are being used as a tool of intimidation – often at times of high academic stress when we are at our most vulnerable. During finals week in December, for example, I received notice of a disciplinary hearing without any supporting evidence. The scheduled hearing was eventually dropped a month later due to insufficient evidence. Others have been suspended, only to have those suspensions reversed within the same day. Scared of losing funding, Columbia sacrificed its integrity and threw its students to the wolves. But it still failed to appease President Donald Trump’s administration – it proceeded to withdraw $400m from the university. Even after the events of the past few weeks and the nationwide uproar over Mahmoud’s arrest, I do not expect Armstrong to change course or do anything to protect the university and its students. Like her predecessor, I know she too will continue to kowtow to Trump, including accepting his latest ultimatum by March 20. The president’s latest set of demands to Columbia include prohibiting masks; slashing the Middle East, South Asian and African Studies department; mandating the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism; and overhauling admissions criteria. I’m ashamed to admit that I have contributed to a media narrative that focuses excessively on fears on US college campuses rather than the courage that Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank demonstrate daily while enduring bombardment, forced starvation, torture, military raids and settler attacks. Especially as Israel has resumed its genocide in Gaza, with the horrific death toll soaring to over 400 in less than 24 hours, I know the story in all the headlines should be Palestine, not Columbia. But as a student two months away from graduation, the ongoing assault on free speech, rule of law and democracy at Columbia is my daily reality. If I must accept these as the conditions under which I’m expected to attend classes and submit assignments – including having to wonder which law enforcement agency, whether the New York Police Department or ICE, will next appear on campus to detain one of us – then I demand that Columbia reimburse me the $81,500 in tuition for what it has falsely advertised as a “premier” education.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.>>
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/3/20/columbia-i-want-my-money-back

Al Jazeera - March 22, 2025 - By Farah Najjar
<<How Columbia gave in to Trump’s demands to get its $400m funding back
The New York university’s federal funding was revoked last month over allegations of ‘antisemitic harassment’ on campus.
Columbia University has agreed to a list of demands laid down by United States President Donald Trump in return for negotiations to reinstate its $400m federal funding which he revoked last month citing “a failure to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment”. Among other concessions, the university has agreed to ban face masks and to empower 36 campus police officers with special powers to arrest students.
A new senior provost will also be installed to oversee the department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies and the Center for Palestine Studies.
So what happened and what has Columbia agreed to do?
Why has the US government made demands of Columbia?
Last year, the school was a major hub during a wave of campus protests that swept the US as Israel’s war on Gaza escalated. On April 30, a group of students, staff and alumni occupied Hamilton Hall, an academic building on campus at Columbia, before being forcibly cleared by New York police at the request of the university’s leadership. Trump’s administration has taken a hardline approach to those involved in the demonstrations last year, pledging in its first week to deport students involved. Earlier this month, it revoked Columbia’s federal funding and issued a list of demands the university must agree to before the funding would be reinstated. This month, Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, 29, who played a key role in organising the pro-Palestine protests, was arrested from his university residence in New York’s upper Manhattan by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who said they would revoke his green card – permanent residency – following an order from the Department of State. “It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America. When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a news release about the arrest. On March 10, US authorities sent a letter to 60 academic institutions, including Columbia, informing them they were under investigation for “antisemitic harassment and discrimination” and warning them of potential law enforcement actions if they do not “protect Jewish students”. The letter also threatened further funding cuts. In response, Columbia said it had expelled, suspended or revoked the degrees of students involved in the Hamilton Hall occupation. As a deadline for Columbia to meet the rest of the government’s demands approached on Friday night, the university sent a new memo to the US administration, saying it had also agreed to them. Critics say the move could fundamentally alter academic freedom and the right to free speech in the United States.
What has Columbia agreed to do?
In its memo to the Trump administration on Friday night, Columbia University listed the new rules and policies which will now apply on its campus and laid out plans to reform its disciplinary processes. Face masks will be banned, protesters will be required to identify themselves, security officers with special powers to arrest students are to be appointed and departments offering courses on the Middle East are to be reviewed and overseen by a new senior provost. The Trump administration had demanded that the school place the Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies department into “academic receivership” for five years – a step which can be taken by a university’s administration to take control of a department it deems to be dysfunctional away from the faculty. In the memo, the university said: “All of these steps have been underway and are intended to further Columbia’s basic mission: to provide a safe and thriving environment for research and education while preserving our commitment to academic freedom and institutional integrity.” In the lead-up to Friday’s deadline to meet the government’s demands, US media reported that Columbia’s trustees had been meeting behind closed doors for several days, with some board members “deeply concerned the university is trading away its moral authority and academic independence for federal funds”, while others said that the school has limited options, according to The Wall Street Journal. Agreeing to the demands does not guarantee the return of federal funds. The Trump administration said meeting its demands was merely a “precondition for formal negotiations”.
How have activists and academics responded?
Critics say the government’s demands go far beyond traditional compliance or conduct policies and that they amount to an attempt to stifle pro-Palestinian voices. Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), said these conditions amount to political control over how universities function, what they teach and who is allowed to speak. She emphasised the danger of such federal overreach, saying Columbia’s compliance with these demands would “set a terrible precedent and eviscerate academic freedom throughout the United States”. “Never before in US history have we seen such an unbridled assault on American civil society, including our constitutional freedoms and protections,” Whitson told Al Jazeera. According to her, the worst thing universities can do now is “stay quiet and think they won’t be next”. Complying with the government’s demands “will open the door for identical actions against every other university in the country”, she added. She said the future of academic discourse itself is now at stake. “The central driving mission of these assaults is first and foremost to silence not just speech but even study of Palestinian rights and history,” she said. “It’s about creating an environment where universities can teach only content that a particular administration deems acceptable.” Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a US policy fellow at Al-Shabaka: The Palestine Policy Network, called the administration’s move “absolutely absurd” and added that the university is “effectively selling away its legitimacy and independence as an academic institution”.
“For an administration that is supposedly so dedicated to shrinking the influence of the federal government in the private affairs of everything from universities to women’s bodies, to now be interfering in the matters of university conduct is a clear example of authoritarian overreach,” Kenney-Shawa told Al Jazeera. He argued that the Trump administration and its pro-Israel supporters are “losing the debate about Israel” on college campuses and are resorting to forcing them to shut down discussions entirely. “There is no doubt that Trump is applying a template that his administration will use against anyone who opposes its far-right agenda,” he said. “But it’s critical to highlight that this is a deliberate targeting of those who advocate for Palestinian rights and criticise Israel.” Professor Jonathan Zimmerman, a graduate of Columbia and now a historian of education at the University of Pennsylvania, told Reuters it was “a sad day for the university”. He said: “Historically, there is no precedent for this. The government is using the money as a cudgel to micromanage a university.” Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, said the move was “arguably the greatest incursion into academic freedom, freedom of speech and institutional autonomy that we’ve seen since the McCarthy era. It sets a terrible precedent.”
Will students be deported?
The government is certainly making efforts to do this but will face legal challenges. In recent weeks, reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents appearing on campus have unsettled many and advocacy groups say the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil is part of a broader pattern to target protesters. Khalil, who is a permanent resident of the US and whose American wife is eight months pregnant, was placed in immigration detention, first in New York and, later, Louisiana. The Trump administration said it plans to strip him of his green card. Khalil has mounted a legal challenge, arguing that the effort to deport him violates his rights to free speech and due process, which are guaranteed under the US Constitution. This week, a federal court rejected Trump’s attempt to have the case dismissed. “These are serious allegations and arguments that, no doubt, warrant careful review by a court of law; the fundamental constitutional principle that all persons in the United States are entitled to due process of law demands no less,” Judge Jesse Fruman wrote in his ruling. Last week, a second Columbia University student protester, Leqaa Kordia, was arrested and accused of overstaying her F-1 student visa. She was detained by ICE agents and detained for deportation. Another foreign student, Ranjani Srinivasan of India, had her student visa revoked for participating “in activities supporting Hammas”, a misspelling of the Palestinian armed group Hamas. Earlier this week, government agents detained Badar Khan Suri, an Indian postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. He is being held in Louisiana for deportation for “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism” on social media, Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said on Wednesday. Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at Georgetown who focuses on Palestinian-Israel affairs, said the enforcement efforts appear to be entering “a different realm with this case”, extending beyond protest activity. “This person seems to have been targeted, not for his activism,” he said, “but simply for being suspected of holding certain views.” Legal efforts to prevent universities from sharing information about students with the government are under way. Earlier this week, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York granted the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)’s request for a legal injunction barring Columbia from sharing student information with federal agencies without due process. The ruling comes amid mounting concerns that universities may be pressured into handing over sensitive data on students, particularly those from Muslim or Arab backgrounds.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA>> https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/22/how-columbia-gave-in-to-trumps-demands-to-get-its-400m-funding-back

Al Jazeera - March 22, 2025 - By Al Jazeera Staff
<<What is Betar US, the group pushing to deport pro-Palestinian students?
The Zionist group is one of many supporting calls by Trump to deport pro-Palestine students from the US.
Several pro-Israel groups have come out in support of United States President Donald Trump’s push to expel and deport students for participating in pro-Palestine protests on US campuses. One of the most prominent among them is Betar US, a group that says it is sharing the names of pro-Palestinian protesters with the Trump administration. The Trump administration has detained Palestinian Columbia University graduate and activist Mahmoud Khalil and an Indian postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University, Badar Khan Suri, and is attempting to deport them. Trump has promised to deport students who protested last year against Israel’s war on Gaza and who demanded that US universities divest from companies linked to Israel. So what is Betar US, why is it pushing for the deportation of pro-Palestinian protesters, what criticism has it faced, and what are the other groups supporting Trump’s moves against campus protests?
What is Betar US?
Betar US is a branch of Betar, a Zionist youth movement founded in 1923 by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who promoted the idea of strong Jewish militarism and territorial expansion. The group says it has branches across the world, including chapters throughout the US. “Our movement has changed the course of the Jewish world. We are the fastest growing Zionist movement worldwide with more than 35 chapters, including throughout Europe, Latin America, Australia and the United States,” Daniel Levy, spokesperson for Betar US, told Al Jazeera by email. “We are loud, proud, aggressive and unapologetically Zionist. We aren’t the nice, polite Jews we are the loud proud Zionists,” the group says on its website. Zionism is a nationalist and political ideology originating in 19th-century Europe that called for the creation of a Jewish state. Betar US works “on campus, in cities, in the media, in business communities and on the streets”, according to its website. But critics have questioned the gulf between the group’s bold advocacy of its views and the limited information about Betar US leaders and members available on its public platforms, including its website. Jenin Younes, a civil liberties and free speech lawyer, said the secrecy was “unusual”. “They claim to be loud and proud,” she said, “but their website does not say who their employees are. That is somewhat unusual for a nonprofit that has received tax-exempt status from the state of New York.” “It suggests that they are trying to shield themselves from accountability,” Younes said. Betar US, however, rejected suggestions that it had anything to hide. “Betar in the US is a 501c3 non-profit and in full compliance with all rules and regulations and filings,” Levy told Al Jazeera.
Who is Betar US targeting?
Since the campus protests erupted last year, Betar US has doxxed pro-Palestinian students. “We’ve provided his name to the government! And many more,” Betar posted on X in January, referring to Khalil. In the same X thread, the group posted a video with Khalil giving an interview, and accused him of saying “Zionists don’t deserve to live while he’s on a visa”. But in the clip shared by Betar US, Khalil does not say that. Two days after Khalil was arrested, Betar US posted a message on X in which they openly declared their intent to have pro-Palestinian students expelled. In the widely shared post, the group said: “We told you we have been working on deportations and will continue to do so. Expect naturalised citizens to start being picked up within the month.” In the statement to Al Jazeera, Betar’s Levy confirmed that “we provided hundreds of names to the Trump Administration of visa holders, and naturalized Middle Easterners and foreigners”, who he claimed — without offering evidence — “support US designated terrorist organizations”. “Those who come to the United States on visas or as naturalized citizens and encourage hate and violence will be deported,” Levy said. The group also insists that those it is targeting in its lists are anti-Semitic. However, many civil rights organisations have in recent months raised concerns that pro-Israel groups and their supporters are conflating criticism of Israel and Zionism with anti-Semitism, which they say hampers free speech in the US and other countries. “Betar US is acting as a nonprofit organisation here in the US,” Abed Ayoub, executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), told Al Jazeera. “But they are engaged in aggressive forms of harassment, going after First Amendment rights [which grants free speech].” Ayoub called Betar US “a problematic entity that is causing a lot of concern”.
What has Betar US said on Gaza?
The group has openly called for a bloodbath in the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip, where Israel has resumed its devastating war. In a now-deleted post, Betar US responded to a list of names including hundreds of Palestinian babies killed in the enclave, saying: “Not enough. We demand blood in Gaza!” On Tuesday, Israel launched a predawn strike in Gaza after a breakdown in talks for the second stage of the ceasefire, killing more than 400 people, including 174 children and women. Israel has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023. The brutal Israeli response came after Hamas carried out an attack in Israel, killing 1,139 people and taking some 250 captive, dozens of whom remain in Gaza. Betar’s social media accounts have repeatedly posted messages calling for violence and the expulsion of Palestinians from their land. In one post, the group said it “firmly supports the plan to remove Palestinians from Gaza”. Younes, the civil liberties lawyer, recalled how in January, Betar US said in a post on X that they were going to disrupt a vigil for Hind Rajab, a six-year-old girl who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last year. Betar US has been labelled an “extremist group” by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Jewish advocacy group set up more than a century ago to combat anti-Semitism. However, Levy said in his statement to Al Jazeera that the group was a “mainstream” Zionist organisation and represents “the majority of the Zionist and Israeli public”. Levy dismissed ADL’s labelling of Betar as “extremist”. The ADL, he said, was a “radical, left-wing, woke” organisation. “Anyone calling Betar extremists is calling Zionism extremism,” he said.
Is Betar US backing Trump’s deportation plans?
Totally, it says.
“Those who come to the United States on visas or as naturalized citizens don’t have the right to come participate in Hamas events or support terrorist organisations,” Levy said. “We support the Trump Administration’s policy.” However, Trump administration officials are yet to make public any evidence linking those who have been detained — including Khalil — to any support for Hamas or other organisations listed as “terrorist” groups in the US. Khalil, who has been lodged in a detention facility in Louisiana, said on Tuesday he was a “political prisoner” in his first comments since his arrest by Department of Homeland Security officers on March 8. “My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night,” he wrote. On March 7, before his arrest, Khalil had written an email to Katrina Armstrong, the interim president of Columbia University, asking her to “protect international students from doxing and from deportation”, citing threats by Betar. Younes, the free speech lawyer, said the arrest “speaks to the sheer insanity and terror of the current moment”, especially if “the president of the United States” was taking Betar’s advice about whom to deport – something that has not yet been confirmed. Betar, meanwhile, wants the Trump administration to do even more. “While we thank the Trump Administration, we urge many more deportations and quicker,” Levy, the Betar spokesperson said.
Are there other groups supporting Trump’s crackdown?
Yes, but to different extents.
ADL – The group has dubbed the campus protests as anti-Semitic and has backed Trump’s executive orders to combat anti-Semitism on campuses. However, it did not publicly support mass deportation campaigns.
Mothers Against College Antisemitism (MACA) – The group claims to combat alleged anti-Semitism on college campuses and has welcomed Trump’s executive orders. It supports the deportation of Khalil and other pro-Palestinian activists it describes as Hamas supporters.
Canary Mission – It is an online database that “documents individuals and organizations that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses and beyond”. It publishes personal information about people and institutions that it considers to be anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. It has welcomed Khalil’s arrest and called for the arrest of more students and faculty.
Are Trump’s planned deportations legal?
The legality of Trump’s deportation threats remains highly contentious.
According to Ayoub from the ADC, Trump’s deportation orders are technically legally enforceable. The administration has the authority to revoke the visas of foreign students under certain conditions – namely if a person is engaging in fraud, or has been deemed a national security threat, say experts. However, Younes argued that the First Amendment of the US Constitution “does not differentiate application based upon immigration status”, and that these deportations are “unlawful”. Khalil’s lawyers have approached the courts to have his deportation blocked. More broadly, civil rights groups are alarmed over what they perceive as a crackdown on free speech, which is protected under the First Amendment. Ayoub said universities have a responsibility to protect students. “Universities have to stand by the right of all students to exercise their First Amendment rights to freedom of expression. They can’t engage in vilifying students or spreading information about them,” Ayoub said. He warned that this situation creates a “chilling effect” where students are too afraid to speak up, affecting not just Palestinian activists, but all other activists. Osama Abuirshaid, executive director of American Muslims for Palestine, echoed similar concerns, saying universities have “completely capitulated to pressure from big donors and the Trump administration”. “These are some of the most difficult times to be a student of conscience and global citizen,” he told Al Jazeera. Younes, the free speech lawyer, said with Trump’s executive orders in effect and groups like Betar US targeting students, foreign nationals, especially, should seek legal counsel immediately before engaging in pro-Palestine activity.
“Unfortunately, the safest thing to do is to remain silent now,” she said.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA>> https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/25/what-is-betar-us-the-group-pushing-to-deport-pro-palestinian-students

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