Mahmoud Khalil Released: A Victory for Free Speech & Palestinian Solidarity

Today’s ruling brings a long-overdue sliver of justice for Mahmoud Khalil. But he should have been released when the first ruling was made. Every day he remained behind bars and denied the chance to be with his wife and newborn son was a failure of justice and a stain on the rights this country claims to uphold. Mahmoud shouldn’t have been detained to begin with. Nobody, student, activist, researcher, immigrant, etc., should fear being disappeared simply for exercising their First Amendment rights — rights that are meant to protect everyone in this country, regardless of citizenship status.

Mahmoud’s case is a chilling reminder of how quickly this country can be led down the path to abandoning its own principles in order to shield a foreign regime committing full-fledged genocide and instigating wars across the Middle East  (with U.S. support).

While we welcome Mahmoud home and wish his family healing, we must continue to confront the dangerous precedent his arrest and detainment have set. The erosion of our so-called democracy is on full display when criticizing a foreign government leads to incarceration, while that same government’s war crimes are met with U.S. financial backing and impunity. We live in a country willing to silence its own people and bend its laws to defend a foreign entity, even if it means implicating itself in the worst of crimes against humanity and undermining our nation and its people.

Mahmoud’s release is a hard-fought victory for his family and for the movement that refused to stay silent. The fact that Mahmoud was ever detained for exercising his rights is an indictment of a system that punishes dissent and weaponizes immigration status. The fight is far from over. We will keep pushing until Mahmoud is entirely free from every threat, and until no one in this country is targeted for their political beliefs. We’re not backing down.