Mahmoud Khalil’s wife, Noor Abdalla, has forcefully denounced the Trump administration’s accusation that her husband supports Hamas, labeling it as “ridiculous” and “disgusting”. In an interview with CBS, Abdalla, who is pregnant, defended her husband against claims by the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt that Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University, was distributing Hamas flyers. The United States government has failed to provide any evidence to substantiate these allegations.
Khalil was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on March 8, and is currently being held in Louisiana as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to suppress and, in some cases, deport students who participated in protests against Israel’s operations in Gaza. The Trump administration has accused these student protesters of engaging in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity” without providing evidence to back up these claims.
Khalil, who served as a spokesperson and negotiator for pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the Columbia campus, views his detention as a consequence of exercising his right to free speech and describes himself as a “political prisoner”.
On March 10, a US district judge in New York temporarily halted Khalil’s deportation, extending the restriction two days later. Noor Abdalla emphasized her husband’s stance against violence, stating, “He just doesn’t want his people to be murdered. He doesn’t want to see little kids losing limbs.”
The Trump administration is attempting to deport Khalil under a provision of an immigration law that allows the secretary of state to remove individuals whose presence in the US could have “adverse foreign policy consequences”. This provision is rarely invoked.
Abdalla has also expressed frustration over the repeated accusations against her and her husband, drawing a parallel to the broader experience of Muslims facing prejudice in the US. She recounted an incident in which she and her husband were called terrorists on the streets of New York, a testament to the broader societal prejudice she contends is symptomatic of the underlying issues facing Muslims in the US.
The situation reflects a broader context of escalating violence and casualties in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with over 50,000 Palestinians killed and more than 113,000 wounded since Israel’s military campaign in Gaza began in October 2023.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/23/detained-columbia-activist-khalils-wife-slams-claims-he-is-hamas-supporter?traffic_source=rss
