NEW YORK: A Columbia University student arrested and threatened with deportation for his role in campus protests against Israel gave his first public statement Tuesday, saying that his detention is indicative of “anti-Palestinian racism” demonstrated by both the Trump and Biden administrations.
In a letter dictated from a Louisiana immigration lockup and released by his attorney, the student, Mahmoud Khalil, said he is being targeted as part of a larger effort to repress Palestinian voices.
“My unjust detention is indicative of the anti-Palestinian racism that both the Biden and Trump administrations have demonstrated over the past 16 months as the US has continued to supply Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians and prevented international intervention,” he said.
“For decades, anti-Palestinian racism has driven efforts to expand US laws and practices that are used to violently repress Palestinians, Arab Americans, and other communities. That is precisely why I am being targeted.”
Khalil and the federal government have been sparring in court over the Trump administration’s move to ship him halfway across the country to the lockup in Louisiana.
The government says he could not be detained at an immigration facility near where he was originally arrested in part because of a bedbug infestation, so they sent him to Louisiana. Khalil says there was no such discussion of bedbugs and he feared he was being immediately deported.
Khalil said in a declaration filed in Manhattan federal court Monday that while he was held overnight at a detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, “I did not hear anyone mention bedbugs.”
In court papers over the weekend, lawyers for the Justice Department also blamed his move on overcrowded facilities in the Northeast.
Khalil made the statement about bedbugs in an exhibit attached to court papers in which his lawyers asked that he be freed on bail while the courts decide whether his arrest violated the First Amendment.
The lawyers have also asked a judge to widen the effect of any order to stop the US government from “arresting, detaining, and removing noncitizens who engage in constitutionally protected expressive activity in the United States in support of Palestinian rights or critical of Israel.”
Khalil said in court records that he was put in a van when he was taken away from the Elizabeth facility and he asked if he was being returned to FBI headquarters in Manhattan, where he was taken immediately after his arrest.
“I was told, ‘no, we are going to JFK Airport.’ I was afraid they were trying to deport me,” he recalled.
Of his time spent at the Elizabeth facility, he wrote: “I was in a waiting room with about ten other people. We slept on the ground. Even though it was cold inside the room, there were no beds, mattresses, or blankets.”
Khalil, in the letter released by his attorney on Tuesday, said “I see in my circumstances similarities to Israel’s use of administrative detention – imprisonment without trial or charge – to strip Palestinians of their rights.”
“For Palestinians, imprisonment without due process is commonplace,” he said.
In the weekend court papers, lawyers for the Justice Department gave a detailed description of Khalil’s March 8 arrest and his transport from Manhattan to Elizabeth and then to Kennedy International Airport in New York the next day for his transfer to Louisiana, where he has been held since.
“Khalil could not be housed at Elizabeth Detention Facility long-term due to a bedbug issue, so he remained there until his flight to Louisiana,” the lawyers wrote. They said he was at the facility from 2:20 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. on March 9.
The lawyers have asked that legal issues be addressed by federal judges in New Jersey or Louisiana rather than New York. A Manhattan federal judge has not yet ruled on the request.
Khalil’s lawyers, who oppose transferring the case, wrote in a submission Monday that the transfer to Louisiana was “predetermined and carried out for improper motives” rather than because of a bedbug infestation.
Despite the bedbug claim, the Elizabeth Detention accepted at least four individuals for detention from March 6 through last Thursday and Khalil himself saw men being processed for detention while he was there, they wrote.
Khalil, in the letter released by his attorney on Tuesday, also referenced a wave of Israeli strikes across Gaza — ending the ceasefire on Monday night — and called it a “moral imperative” to continue push for freedom for Palestinians.
“With January’s ceasefire now broken, parents in Gaza are once again cradling too-small shrouds, and families are forced to weigh starvation and displacement against bombs,” he said. “It is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle for their complete freedom.”
Columbia University student says his detention is indicative of anti-Palestinian racism in US
https://arab.news/8uktq
Columbia University student says his detention is indicative of anti-Palestinian racism in US
- Khalil, in the letter released by his attorney on Tuesday, said “I see in my circumstances similarities to Israel’s use of administrative detention – imprisonment without trial or charge – to strip Palestinians of their rights”
- Khalil and the federal government have been sparring in court over the Trump administration’s move to ship him halfway across the country to the lockup in Louisiana
Putin suggests putting Ukraine under UN-sponsored external governance, boasts battlefield gains
He added that such external governance is just “one of the options,” without elaborating
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed Friday to put Ukraine under external governance under the UN aegis as part of efforts to reach a peaceful settlement, a blustery statement that reflected the Kremlin leader’s determination to achieve his war goals.
Speaking to the crew of a Russian nuclear submarine in televised remarks broadcast early Friday, Putin reaffirmed his claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose term expired last year, lacks the legitimacy to sign a peace deal.
Under Ukraine’s constitution it is illegal for the country to hold national elections while it’s under martial law.
Putin claimed that any agreement that is signed with the current Ukrainian government could be challenged by its successors and said new elections could be held under external governance.
“Under the auspices of the United Nations, with the United States, even with European countries, and, of course, with our partners and friends, we could discuss the possibility of introduction of temporary governance in Ukraine,” Putin said, adding that it would allow the country to “hold democratic elections, to bring to power a viable government that enjoys the trust of the people, and then begin negotiations with them on a peace treaty.”
He added that such external governance is just “one of the options,” without elaborating.
‘They’re playing for time’
Putin’s remarks came hours after the conclusion of a summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron that considered plans to deploy troops to Ukraine to cement an eventual peace deal. Macron said “several” other nations want to be part of the force alongside France and Britain.
Russia has warned it wouldn’t accept any troops from NATO members as part of a prospective peacekeeping force.
Macron and other participants of the Paris summit on Thursday accused Russia of only pretending to want a negotiated settlement.
“They are playing games and they’re playing for time,” said UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “We can’t let them drag this out while they continue prosecuting their illegal invasion.”
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a tentative U.S-brokered deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure, but quickly accused each other of violations, underscoring the challenges to negotiating a broader peace.
Drone attacks continue
Russia launched 163 strike and decoy drones at Ukraine late Thursday, according to the Ukrainian air force, which said that 89 of them were downed and 51 more jammed.
The drones damaged multiple residential buildings and injured a 19-year-old in Zaporizhzhia, regional head Ivan Fedorov said. In Poltava, drones damaged warehouses, administrative building, and a high-voltage transformer, according to regional head Volodymyr Kohut.
Damage to buildings and infrastructure facilities was also reported by the authorities in the Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Mykolaiv regions.
Ukraine’s state-run gas company, Naftogaz, said Friday that its facilities came under Russian fire without specifying its time and location.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukrainian forces struck a gas metering station in Sudzha in the Kursk region with US-made HIMARS rockets, completely destroying the facility. It said another Ukrainian strike on an energy facility in Russia’s Bryansk region led to a power cutoff, and added that air defenses downed 19 Ukrainian drones that attempted to strike an oil refinery in Saratov.
The ministry said the continuing strikes show that Kyiv’s pledge of adherence to a US-proposed halt on strikes on energy facilities was just “another ruse by Zelensky to prevent the collapse of Ukrainian defenses and to restore military potential with the help of European allies.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy assets was a sign that Zelensky can’t control his military.
“The Ukrainian armed forces aren’t following orders from the country’s leadership and are continuing attempts to strike Russia’s energy infrastructure,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
He said that Russia will continue sticking to the halt on strikes on energy facilities but reserves the right to opt out of the deal if violations continue.
‘Strictly adhering to agreements’
Ukraine’s military rejected Russia’s claims of Ukrainian strikes on energy facilities as fake, aimed at “discrediting Ukraine and the diplomatic efforts of Ukraine and its partners.”
“We emphasize that the Ukrainian Defense Forces are strictly adhering to the agreements reached with partners to stop strikes on energy facilities,” the General Staff said, emphasizing that the military only has struck Russia’s military targets.
It also accused Russia of violating the “energy ceasefire,” saying that it has struck energy infrastructure in the city of Kherson and Poltava region of Ukraine over the last 24 hours.
“The Russian tactic of dragging out the war remains unchanged,” Ukraine’s General Staff said.
While Ukraine has agreed to a full, 30-day ceasefire that US President Donald Trump has proposed, Putin has made a complete ceasefire conditional on a halt of arms supplies to Kyiv and a suspension of Ukraine’s military mobilization — demands rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies.
Russia’s battlefield gains
Russian troops have made slow but steady gains in several sectors of the more than 1,000-kilometer (over 620-mile) frontline, and Zelensky warned Thursday that Russia was trying to drag out talks in preparation for bigger offensives.
Putin declared in overnight remarks that the Russian troops have “gained steam” and “are holding strategic initiative all along the line of contact.”
He noted that Russia is open to a peaceful settlement, but emphasized the need to “remove root causes that led to the current situation.”
“We certainly need to ensure Russia’s security for a long historic perspective,” he said.
Putin has demanded that Kyiv withdraw its forces from the four regions Moscow has partially seized. He also wants Ukraine to renounce joining NATO, sharply cut its army and legally protect Russian language and culture to keep the country in Moscow’s orbit.
Russian officials also have said that any prospective peace deal should involve unfreezing Russian assets in the West and lifting other US and European Union sanctions. The Trump administration has said it would consider potential sanctions relief.
WHO readying medical supplies for ‘huge’ Myanmar quake
- WHO is coordinating its earthquake response from its Geneva headquarters “because we see this as a huge event” spokeswoman Margaret Harris said
- She said the WHO would also be concentrating on getting in essential medicines
GENEVA: The WHO said it had triggered its emergency management system in response to Friday’s “huge” earthquake in Myanmar and was mobilizing its logistics hub in Dubai to prepare trauma injury supplies.
The World Health Organization is coordinating its earthquake response from its Geneva headquarters “because we see this as a huge event” with “clearly a very, very big threat to life and health,” spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a media briefing.
“We’ve activated our logistics hub to look particularly for trauma supplies and things like external fixators because we expect that there will be many, many injuries that need to be dealt with,” Harris said.
She said the WHO would also be concentrating on getting in essential medicines, while the health infrastructure in Myanmar itself might be damaged.
Harris said that due to recent experience with the 2023 Turkiye-Syria earthquakes, “we know very well what you need to send in first.”
The UN health agency already has a special cell to deal with Myanmar, which has been rocked by fighting between numerous ethnic rebel groups and the army.
And by chance, the WHO had done an assessment in recent weeks of the best ways to get supplies into Myanmar.
“We are ready to move in — but now we have to know exactly where, what and why. It’s information from the ground that’s really critical right now,” said Harris.
From dabke to digital: How South Koreans mobilize for Palestine
- More than 230 groups are part of Urgent Action by Korean Civil Society in Solidarity with Palestine
- Creativity of their campaigns is an inherent trait of South Korea’s civic activism in the 21st century
SEOUL: From one-man protests to mass demonstrations, performances and literature, South Koreans are increasingly raising awareness on Palestine, with activists outdoing each other in creative expression as the solidarity movement quickly grows.
Advocacy for Palestine has been present in South Korea for several decades, but it has never been as prominent as it is now. While it began to gain some traction in the wake of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, only a handful of activists were involved.
“It was difficult to mobilize back then. Sometimes we had just two members, usually five,” Deng Ya-ping, leader of BDS Korea — a group affiliated with the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement — told Arab News.
Korean civil society groups used to get together to denounce Israel, but only in response to particular incidents.
“When the situation was over, the groups would return to advocating for their own agendas,” Deng said.
“But now, because the massacre and genocide have been going on for the past 15 months and it’s becoming serious, so many groups — to new magnitudes — have been collaborating to show solidarity.”
It started out as marches in downtown Seoul and soon evolved into a multifaceted awareness campaign as Israel’s response to the attack by the Palestinian group Hamas in October 2023 reached a genocidal scale.
More than 230 civil society groups have joined together as Urgent Action by Korean Civil Society in Solidarity with Palestine, transforming what was once a little-known cause into a dynamic and visible movement that incorporates diverse advocacy methods.
Every day, members of the movement choose one person to hold a banner reading “Stop Genocide” in front of the Israeli Embassy in Seoul and encourage passersby to call for an end to Israel’s onslaught, massacres, and occupation of Palestine.
They also host readathons of Palestinian literature, screen documentaries exposing the realities of life under Israeli occupation, organize meetings with Palestinian refugees, and learn about Palestine’s culture, as they perform the dabke — a traditional dance and a symbol of Palestinian resistance and identity.
Social media has played a major role in amplifying these efforts. A recent Instagram campaign went viral after Korean activists filmed themselves posing as Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, who remained defiant to the end. The footage released by Israeli forces showed Sinwar with severe injuries and one hand severed, but still fighting the combat drone they had sent to kill him.
The creativity displayed by the Palestine solidarity movement is an inherent trait of South Korea’s civic activism.
“South Korea’s demonstration culture has become highly creative in the 21st century. This is also reflected in the Palestinian solidarity movement here,” said Eom Han-jin, sociology professor at Hallym University in Chuncheon.
“Towards the end of the 1990s, South Korea had already become a democracy, so it had the capability to focus on not only domestic issues, but issues that occur in other regions. The Palestine issue was one of the major international solidarity movements at the time, and people in Korea started to take interest in the Israeli occupation and atrocities in 2000 … Then, the US invaded Iraq, and South Korea sent troops, making it a major agenda for social movements.”
As people who have also experienced colonial occupation, Koreans feel a sense of connection to Palestinians, which has lately been fueled by the influx of foreign workers and students from Palestine and the Middle East who share their stories firsthand.
What strengthens the movement further is the current situation in Korea as well.
“As anti-government protests intensify, the pro-Palestine movement has become part of this larger wave of resistance,” Eom said.
“Unlike in other countries where activism is focused around Middle Easterners and people who sympathize with them, a very diverse set of groups have been collaborating and advocating in South Korea.”
By blending digital advocacy with cultural and grassroots activism, the South Korean movement has attracted a broad and varied base of supporters.
“I was shocked when I saw children being killed and hospitals being attacked,” said Kim Seok-gyu, a 22-year-old observer of the movement.
“I was dumbfounded, because how can they (Israelis) possibly do something like this in the 21st century?”
He is not alone. A recent study by Hankook Research found that 62 percent of its respondents felt more sympathetic toward the Palestinian cause. Support for Israel, on the other hand, has plummeted.
Joo Jeon-ja, a 30-year-old not affiliated with any activist group, has been joining the protests they organize.
“In the news, I have seen little children being killed by the Israelis. I just couldn’t believe my eyes. I thought I had to act,” she said.
“I can’t make large donations or go help the kids, so I just want to do my best from what I can. That is why I participate. I plan to participate more often in the future.”
Joo is also trying to get more people involved.
“I want to bring more people to the protests with me in the future,” she said.
“I realized that collective efforts are important in making a change. It is voices like ours that (can) … make a real difference. And that is what I strive to do.”
Another driving force behind the solidarity movement’s expansion is student activism, which engages especially the younger generations.
Unlike their US counterparts, who have largely relied on mass demonstrations and sit-ins, South Korean students have diversified their activism by running advocacy booths, collecting signatures for petitions, and hosting discussion forums. Online campaigns, inter-university collaborations, and hashtag movements have also gained traction.
One of the organizations is Yalla Yonsei at Yonsei University, one of Seoul’s top institutions.
“There are student groups like ours across several universities in Seoul. We often collaborate on events. For example, there is Soobak (‘watermelon’ in Korean) at the Seoul National University, and we sometimes hold educational seminars with them,” said Lim Jae-kyung.
“I want to keep doing what we are doing in order to give support to the people suffering in Palestine. It is those people who are really suffering. The hardships we go through here are nothing compared to what the people are feeling there. There is not much we can do from Korea, but we will keep on fighting.”
UN’s food aid body warns of crisis as funding cut by 40%
- Despite the generosity of many governments and individuals, WFP is ‘experiencing a steep decline in funding across its major donors’
The WFP said that despite the generosity of many governments and individuals, it is “experiencing a steep decline in funding across its major donors.”
“Right now, the organization is facing an alarming 40 percent drop in funding for 2025, as compared to last year,” the Rome-based agency said in statement.
It added: “The severity of these cuts, combined with record levels of people in need, have led to an unprecedented crisis for tens of millions across the globe reliant on food aid.”
It did not name any individual country, but the United States, by far the WFP’s biggest donor, has dramatically cut its aid funding since President Donald Trump took office in January.
Other countries have also cut overseas aid, including Germany, the second biggest development aid donor behind the United States, and the UK, which is instead boosting defense spending.
“WFP is prioritizing countries with the greatest needs and stretching food rations at the frontlines,” said Rania Dagash-Kamara, WFP Assistant Executive Director for Partnerships and Innovation.
“While we are doing everything possible to reduce operational costs, make no mistake, we are facing a funding cliff with life-threatening consequences.”
The WFP highlighted 28 of its most critical operations which it said were facing severe funding constraints and “dangerously low food supplies” through to August.
They include Lebanon, Sudan, Syria, South Sudan, Chad, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Uganda, Niger, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Mali, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Haiti, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, Kenya, Ukraine, Malawi, Burundi, Ethiopia, the Palestinian territories, Central African Republic, Jordan, and Egypt.
The WFP had Thursday warned it had only two weeks’ worth of food left in Gaza, where “hundreds of thousands of people” are at risk of severe hunger and malnutrition.
Rwanda bans ‘any kind of cooperation’ with Belgian government
- The ban also extends ‘faith-based organizations’ and common-benefit companies
- Rwanda’s government severed links with Belgium on March 17
KIGALI: National and international NGOs working in Rwanda have been banned from cooperating with Belgian institutions, the Rwanda Governance Board said, after Kigali cut off diplomatic ties with Brussels earlier this month.
The RGB, which oversees service delivery in the east African nation, said the ban also extended to “faith-based organizations” and common-benefit companies.
Rwanda’s government severed links with Belgium on March 17, accusing it of having “consistently undermined” it during the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Belgium, the former colonial power in Rwanda and the DRC, called the move “disproportionate” and promised tit-for-tat measures on Rwandan diplomats.
Rwandan troops are supporting the M23 armed group in the DRC, which has taken control of large swathes of the mineral-rich east of the country since 2021.
The group launched a lightning push earlier this year, capturing the cities of Goma and Bukavu, the capitals of North and South Kivu provinces.
The RGB said any current projects or agreements with the Belgian government or its affiliates were “prohibited” and “must be terminated immediately and reported.”
“No funds, grants, donations, or financial contributions shall be received from or disbursed to the government of Belgium, its institutions, affiliated agencies or programs,” it said in a statement issued Thursday.
“Any attempts to circumvent these financial restrictions, including indirect transactions through subsidiaries or partner organizations, will be subject to strict penalties.”
Political and human rights activist Pelly Prudence Iraguha said the decision should have been submitted to parliament.
But RGB chief executive Doris Uwicyeza Picard wrote on X: “RGB has powers to take such decisions backed by laws passed by parliament.
“These laws give RGB powers to suspend NGOs involved in activities that infringe on citizens unity or security.”
