Several dozen protesters supporting Mahmoud Khalil occupied the lobby area of Trump Tower on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue on Thursday, calling for the release of the anti-Israel activist who was detained over the weekend.
The protesters, many dressed in red, held signs reading “Free Mahmoud, Free Palestine” and “Fight Nazis Not Students.”
The protesters were also chanting the common “Free, free Palestine” slogan.
After occupying the lobby area – the same area where President Donald Trump launched his 2016 presidential campaign – the NYPD began detaining several of them and hauled multiple demonstrators out of the building in zip ties.
Demonstrators from the group, Jewish Voice for Peace, protest inside Trump Tower in support of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, on Thursday, March 13, in New York City. (AP/Yuki Iwamura)
ICE agents arrested Khalil at his university-owned apartment on the city’s Upper West Side on Saturday. Agents told him they were revoking his green card and student visa, according to Khalil’s attorneys.
Khalil was one of the ringleaders of anti-Israel protests at Columbia University last year.
The Jewish Voice for Peace said it helped organize the protest. The group’s X account says its aim is to organize Jews “toward Palestinian liberation and Judaism beyond Zionism.
Demonstrators from the group Jewish Voice for Peace are seen inside Trump Tower on Thursday, March 13. (AP/Yuki Iwamura)
“As Jews, we are taking over the Trump Tower to register our mass refusal,” the group wrote.
“We will not stand by as this fascist regime attempts to criminalize Palestinians and all those calling for an end to the Israeli government’s US-funded genocide of the Palestinian people. And we will never stop fighting for a free Palestine. If you come for one, you face us all. Free Mahmoud, free Palestine!”
Protests have erupted all week in Manhattan following Khalil’s detainment. He is being held in Louisiana while a federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to deport him before his case is heard.
WATCH LIVE: NYPD arrests agitators flooding Trump Tower in protest
His supporters say he is being held for exercising his free speech and for supporting Palestine, while the Trump White House said he is a U.S. national security risk and distributed pro-Hamas propaganda fliers on campus.
Khalil, who is a Palestinian raised in Syria and a permanent U.S. resident, is married to an American citizen who is currently eight months pregnant.
The protest on Thursday broke out at one of President Trump’s signature buildings. Trump developed the 58-story skyscraper in the early 1980s and serves as the headquarters for the Trump Organization.
It houses several luxury residential condominiums, office spaces and retail establishments, as well as a penthouse residence belonging to the president.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
