Palestinian rights advocate Mahmoud Khalil is suing Columbia University, alleging it was deliberately indifferent to harassment directed at him and fellow activists.
In a 60-page lawsuit filed on Monday, Khalil, student organization SIPA Palestine Working Group, and the organization’s president alleged that the university’s indifference had led to the doxxing of multiple group members and Khalil’s arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in March 2025.
Khalil, a green card holder of Palestinian descent, was a graduate student at Columbia University until December 2024. He served as a lead negotiator for students during talks with university administrators to end campus protests following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel and the ensuing Israeli offensive in Gaza.
He was arrested by ICE in March 2025 following President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at combating anti-Semitism on college campuses. Khalil was released in June 2025 after a federal judge in New Jersey ruled that his detention was unconstitutional.
“Columbia laid the groundwork for my targeting by the Trump administration through its deliberate indifference and discrimination aimed at intimidating Palestinian students,” Khalil said in a Sept. 14 post on X.
“For over two years, we pleaded with Columbia. Columbia did not care. Our safety and our wellbeing did not serve the ideological project its Board of Trustees was protecting, so they traded us away.”
Khalil signaled that he would pursue further legal and public accountability against individuals at the university whom he holds responsible for the alleged harassment he and his peers endured.
The lawsuit states that Khalil began reporting harassment and violence during the spring 2023 semester but that the university allegedly failed to take action.
It alleges that Columbia retaliated by restricting the group’s ability to function as a student organization by characterizing its events as “security risks.”
The plaintiffs accused Columbia of civil rights violations and sought injunctive relief to lift the Palestinian group’s suspension. The lawsuit also seeks compensatory damages “in amounts to be determined at trial.”
Columbia declined to comment on the lawsuit, but said that “creating a campus environment where every member of our community feels welcome, supported, and safe is fundamental to who we are as a university.”
“Columbia is committed to protecting our community from discrimination and harassment, and responding promptly and appropriately when concerns arise,” it said.
Khalil also sued last year to block Columbia from providing a congressional committee with records of disciplinary actions stemming from campus protests.
His deportation case remains ongoing, and his legal team has said they plan to seek Supreme Court review after the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on May 22 that it would leave in place a ruling stating that the district court lacked jurisdiction over Khalil’s immigration proceedings.
Bill Pan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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