Pro‑Palestinian student activists sue Columbia University over alleged lack of protection

NEW YORK – Mahmoud Khalil and other pro-Palestinian student activists sued Columbia University on Sept 14, accusing the Ivy League school of being deliberately indifferent to years of pervasive harassment because of their advocacy.

Khalil became a face of the Trump administration crackdown on students’ pro-Palestinian protests after US immigration agents arrested him in March 2025 in the lobby of his university residence, though he was a lawful permanent resident – or green card holder – and not accused of a crime.

The complaint filed in Manhattan federal court by Khalil, the SIPA Palestine Working Group (PWG) and its president, Mohammad Zubairi, said Columbia violated federal civil rights law through its failure to protect students from threats, doxxing and other harassment based on their perceived Arab or Muslim ancestry, or their advocacy for Palestinian rights.

SIPA is short for Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, where Khalil had been a graduate student.

The war in Gaza still sparks fierce debate at schools including Columbia, where the central pedestrian walkway across campus has been closed for nearly three years as the university tries to balance safety concerns against the desire for greater normality and openness.

At a press conference at Columbia announcing the lawsuit, Khalil said the university exhibited a “rotten, institutionalised anti-Palestinian bigotry” entrenched in every department and backed by its board of trustees.

“We are suing because no student, regardless of their background, should go through the hell that Columbia put us through over all these years,” Khalil said.

Columbia declined to comment on the lawsuit, but a spokeswoman said: “Creating a campus environment where every member of our community feels welcome, supported and safe is fundamental to who we are as a university. It is also a responsibility we take seriously.”

Khalil said he began reporting harassment during the spring semester in 2023, several months before Israel went to war in Gaza.

The complaint said that instead of investigating reported harassment, Columbia treated pro-Palestinian protests as “security risks” and revised its policies to treat any on-campus criticism of Israel’s military or government conduct as subject to discipline.

“Defendants’ failure to respond to Mr Khalil’s, Mr Zubairi’s, and other PWG members’ legitimate reports of ongoing harassment and violence, and the retaliatory actions they actively took in response to these reports, placed PWG members at risk of violence and caused sustained, ongoing harm,” the complaint said.

The protests at Columbia divided the university, with many supporting the protesters and others saying they felt unsafe or considered some activity antisemitic.

They led to the spread of so-called solidarity encampments on dozens of college campuses, and to the resignation of Columbia’s president.

Khalil is an Algerian citizen born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria.

He spent 104 days in a Louisiana jail following his arrest, missing the birth of his first child, before being released on bail.

Khalil still faces possible deportation, after a federal appeals court in Philadelphia said a district court judge lacked jurisdiction when he ordered Khalil’s release from custody in 2025.

Khalil also sued Columbia in March 2025, less than one week after his arrest, challenging the university’s disclosure of student disciplinary records to a House of Representatives committee. REUTERS