Mahmoud Khalil tells New York Times Palestinians 'couldn't avoid' Oct. 7 massacre

Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student and prominent anti-Israel activist who narrowly avoided deportation and is now suing the country for $20 million, claimed this week that Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel was unavoidable.

"To me it felt frightening that we had to reach this moment," said Khalil, who led the Students for Justice Palestine on Columbia's campus, "in the Palestinian struggle. And I remember I didn't sleep for a number of days," he went on, saying that his wife was worried about him.

"I remember I was like 'this couldn't happen," he said. Klein pressed Khalil on what he meant by "reach this moment." Khalil explained that he was interning for UNRWA when the massacre on Oct. 7 happened and that as part of that internship, he was researching conditions for Palestinians in the West Bank.

“You can see that the situation is not sustainable,” Khalil told New York Times journalist Ezra Klein. “You have an Israeli government that’s absolutely ignoring Palestinians. They are trying to make that deal with Saudi [Arabia] and just happy about their Abraham Accords without looking at Palestinians, as if Palestinians are not part of the equation. And they circumvented the Palestinian question."

Khalil was referencing diplomatic progress between Israel and Saudi Arabia as part of expanding the Abraham Accords, which Hamas reportedly sought to sabotage with the Oct. 7 attack, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

"And it's clear," Khalil said, "and it's becoming more and more violent, like, you know, by October 6 [2023] over 200 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and settlers, over 40 of them were children, so that's what I mean by unfortunately we couldn't avoid such a moment. And yet it was absolutely difficult, to see not only the horrific images but also the response of Israel, because I knew that's what Netanyahu wants."

When Klein asked if Khalil believed the attack was meant to force an all-out war or to break the political status quo, Khalil responded: “It’s more the latter, just to break the cycle, to break that Palestinians are not being heard.”

Khalil declined to describe the attack as a “mistake,” even while acknowledging that “targeting civilians is wrong.” He added, “Unfortunately, these horrible things happened, but we cannot ask Palestinians to be perfect victims.” 

The US Department of State reports that "According to Israeli authorities, 43 Israelis and foreigners were killed by these other terrorist attacks in 2023, an increase from the 32 killed in 2022.  During the year, Israeli security forces frequently entered the West Bank to conduct counterterrorism operations, including arrests of suspected terrorists, which often led to clashes with Palestinian militants." They further state that "Israeli authorities reported 289 shooting attacks in 2023, after 305 such incidents reported in 2022."

Khalil gained national notoriety for organizing protests targeting Jews on the Columbia campus, his vocal support of Palestinian terror groups and his refusal to condemn Hamas. In a July CNN interview with Pamela Brown, Khalil called it “disingenuous” to ask him to denounce the group responsible for the Oct. 7 massacre, claiming that Palestinians are “being starved now by Israel.”

In March, Khalil was arrested by US immigration authorities and held for 104 days in a Louisiana detention facility. The Department of Homeland Security accused him of engaging in activities “aligned with Hamas,” a US-designated terrorist organization, and stripped him of his green card. Democrats and immigration activists quickly rallied to his defense, and a federal judge in New Jersey ordered his release in June.

Khalil entered the United States in 2022 to attend Columbia on a student visa and became a leader with Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a group accused of promoting antisemitism and supporting Hamas. Now, the activist is suing the federal government for $20 million over his detainment, claiming it was politically motivated. Despite public backlash, Khalil continues to offer what many see as thin justifications for terrorism.

The Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas saw over 1,200 Israeli civilians murdered, more than 250 taken hostage, and widespread reports of rape and other atrocities, an act that ignited the ongoing war in Gaza. Khalil, who was interning for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) during the time of the attack, an organization whose employees participated in the atrocities, claimed the violence was the result of growing tensions and disregard for Palestinians by both Israel and the international community.