Demonstrators took to the streets on Saturday, during Saint Patrick’s Day weekend, in coordinated marches across the US to demand the release of detained Palestinian graduate Mahmoud Khalil.
Carrying signs with Khalil’s picture, others reading Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “Out of Our Communities and Free All Palestinian Political Prisoners”, demonstrators — generally numbering in the hundreds in each city — gathered nationwide.
Some protests took place near local Saint Patrick’s Day parades. While marchers largely kept to themselves, there were small displays of Palestinian solidarity within the holiday parades, including one sign reading Ireland for Palestine solidarity.
Saturday’s nationwide demonstrations appeared to be the largest yet following Khalil’s arrest and detention one week earlier at his New York City residence.
Khalil, a 26-year-old recent Columbia University graduate, had been a prominent figure in student activism. Known for his outspoken role in Gaza solidarity campaigns, Khalil was widely recognised for organising campus protests, coordinating teach-ins, and amplifying Palestinian voices during the height of last spring’s student protest movement. …..more
