Columbia
University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil testified at his asylum hearing on
Thursday, telling an immigration judge in Jena, Louisiana, that his deportation
from the United States could lead to his “assassination, kidnapping, torture.”
Hours before the hearing, Khalil was allowed to meet and hold his 1-month-old
son Deen for the first time. The emotional moment came after a federal judge
blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to keep Khalil behind a plexiglass
barrier for a visit with his wife and infant son.
Khalil’s
legal team has raised concerns about the impartiality of immigration judges
overseeing the case. “They serve at the pleasure of the president, and this is
a president who has not been shy about firing immigration judges,” says Ramzi
Kassem, part of the legal team representing Mahmoud Khalil.
At Least 29 Die
of Starvation in Gaza as Israeli Strike on Jabaliya Home Leaves 50 Dead or
Missing
In
northern Gaza, more than 50 Palestinians were killed or are presumed dead
following an Israeli airstrike that leveled a four-story home in Jabaliya.
Civil Defense workers described a horrific scene, with rescue operations
severely hampered due to a lack of heavy machinery.
The
attack came as Gaza officials said at least 29 children and seniors starved to
death over the past two days amid a worsening hunger crisis brought on by
Israel’s near-total blockade. On Thursday, there were chaotic scenes as crowds
scrambled to receive the first freshly baked bread in weeks from a handful of
bakeries in south and central Gaza. Israel’s army said it granted access
Thursday to 107 humanitarian aid trucks carrying limited supplies of food,
medical equipment and pharmaceuticals; aid groups say at least 500 aid trucks
are needed every day for two months to alleviate Gaza’s hunger crisis. This is
U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.
Stéphane Dujarric: “The shipment
from yesterday is limited in quantity and nowhere near sufficient to meet the
scale and scope of Gaza’s 2.1 million.”
Israeli
Opposition Lawmaker Ayman Odeh Removed from Knesset After Protesting Gaza
Assault
n
Jerusalem, a member of the Arab-Jewish coalition Hadash party was forcefully
removed from the podium of Israel’s Knesset Thursday as he condemned Israel’s
assault on Gaza. This is the lawmaker, Ayman Odeh.
Ayman Odeh: “After a year and a
half of war in which you killed 19,000 children, 53,000 residents of Gaza, you
destroyed all the universities and the hospitals. And for you, there is no
political win. You feel there is no political win. That’s why you go crazy.”
Judge Allows
Detained Palestinian Student Mahmoud Khalil to Hold Infant Son for First Time
Mahmoud
Khalil, the Columbia University graduate abducted by ICE, testified in court
Thursday that he faces possible “assassination, kidnapping, [or] torture” if he
were to be deported, after being “mislabeled … a terrorist sympathizer” by the
U.S. government. Khalil has been locked up in an immigration prison in Jena,
Louisiana, for over two months, after he was taken from his New York home in
March. Just hours before his testimony on Thursday, Mahmoud Khalil was
permitted to hold his 1-month-old son Deen for the first time since he was
born. Hundreds of people rallied in Jena Thursday to demand justice for Khalil.
Amy Greer, one of his lawyers, spoke to reporters after the court hearing.
Amy Greer: “As long as this
genocide is unfolding and the ethnic cleansing happening in the West Bank
continues to unfold to the silence of the Western part of the world, he will
keep speaking. And this administration can keep throwing people away, keep trying
to silence our communities, but we see what’s happening. Mahmoud sees what’s
happening. And he is willing to exercise his voice and protect all of our
rights.”
We’ll
have more on this story later in the broadcast with another member of Mahmoud
Khalil’s legal team, Ramzi Kassem.
Columbia Alumni
Burn Diplomas to Protest Campus Repression Against Pro-Palestinian Students
Here
in New York, alumni from Columbia and Barnard ripped up and burned their
diplomas outside their alma mater Wednesday to protest the repression of free
speech and persecution of pro-Palestinian student protesters on campus. This is
Jeanie Dubnau, a Barnard graduate from the class of 1960.
Jeanie Dubnau: “My parents came
here to escape the fascism in Nazi Germany. And now I’m finding that we are
facing fascism here in the United States, and Columbia University is opening
its arms to this fascist government.”
In
related news, students and staff at the University of Oregon have joined hunger
strikers across the country, demanding their school divest from Israel and
protect free speech on campus. Hunger strikes are also ongoing at Yale,
Stanford and at California State University schools.
No comments:
Post a Comment