Palestinian former student who bucked deportation orders in court says it’s ‘disingenuous’ to ask him to condemn Hamas

Khalil was detained by the Trump administration in March for his role in protests at Columbia that officials said were aligned with Hamas. He also failed to disclose his past employment at the UNRWA on his visa application, the Trump administration has said. The UNRWA was found to have had employees participate in the October 7 attacks against Israel, leading to the US cutting off all funding for the group.

During an interview with CNN co-anchor Pamela Brown, Khalil repeatedly avoided directly answering whether he condemned Hamas.

“Do you specifically condemn Hamas, a designated terrorist organization in the United States, not just for their actions on October 7?” Brown asked. Khalil responded by condemning the killing of “all civilians, full stop,” but declined to single out Hamas.

When pressed again on whether he would disavow, “Hamas specifically,” Khalil doubled down: No, I am very clear with condemning all civilians. I’m very straight in my position in that part.” He went on to blast the question as biased.

“It’s disingenuous to ask about condemning Hamas while Palestinians are the ones being starved now by Israel. It’s not condemning October 6, where 260 Palestinians were killed by Israel before October 7,” Khalil claimed. “So I hate this selective outrage of condemnation because this is not, this wouldn’t lead to a constructive conversation. And this is also, like what we want to deal with is the root cause of why that happened. And it’s no way anyone can justify the killing of civilians.”

Brown noted that Khalil had previously been accused by the Trump administration of sympathizing with Hamas, particularly during campus protests that sometimes turned violent. Khalil claimed he was “simply” protesting the war in Gaza.

“That’s my duty as a Palestinian, as a human being right now, is to ask for the stop of the killing in my home country. And that’s consistent with who I am,” Khalil said. “As I said, disingenuous and absurd to ask such questions … That’s why I wouldn’t really engage much into such questions on condemnation or not. Because selective condemnations is not, wouldn’t get us anywhere. It’s just like hypocrite, to be honest.”

Khalil spent 104 days in detention after being arrested by federal immigration authorities. He is now suing the US government for $20 million, alleging false imprisonment.

The Department of Homeland Security responded to his CNN appearance in a post on X, stating, “Mahmoud Khalil refuses to condemn Hamas because he IS a terrorist sympathizer not because DHS ‘painted’ him as one. He ‘branded’ himself as antisemite through his own hateful behavior and rhetoric.”

DHS added, “It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America. The Trump Administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detain Khalil, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews, and damages property.”