Students at Columbia University in New York, US, have chained themselves to the entrance gate of the school campus to demand the release of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained for leading demonstrations in support of Palestine last Spring.
A group of students, mostly of Jewish origin, organised a demonstration to protest the detention of Khalil on Wednesday.
Four students chained themselves to the bars at the main entrance gate of the university campus on Amsterdam Street and chanted slogans such as "Freedom for Palestine" and "Mahmoud Khalil, release him immediately."
The students, who were seen hanging a Palestinian flag on the gate of the school, were supported by their friends inside and outside the school with slogans and banners with the same content.
The police intervened in the chain protest, which lasted for more than an hour, and cut the chains with a chainsaw and took the students out of the school. It was observed that the police did not detain anyone.
Crackdown
His lawyer, Amy Greer, stated that although Khalil was in the US as a "permanent resident with a green card" and his wife was a US citizen, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials detained him and cancelled his green card.
Khalil was the first in a growing list of students who have been detained or being sought by US authorities for deportation amid its crackdown on pro-Palestine voices.
A few days after Khalil's arrest, Trump's claim came due after another pro-Palestine student, Badar Khan Suri, an Indian researcher at Georgetown University, was arrested. His attorney said he was arrested because of the Palestinian identity of his wife.
After the arrest of Suri, authorities went after another pro-Palestine student, Momodou Taal, asking him to turn himself in.
On March 25, Yunseo Chung, a Columbia University student, said she sued the Trump administration to stop her deportation from the US over her participation in a pro-Palestine protest last Spring.
Also on March 25, Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University PhD student, was kidnapped in broad daylight by US authorities over criticising Israel's carnage in Gaza.
