Soon after his detention, Khalil’s supporters issued a press release calling the arrest “a racist targeting” which “serves to instill fear in pro-Palestine activists as well as a warning to others.”
A petition demanding Khalil’s immediate release posted on Action Network garnered more than 349,000 signatures by Sunday evening.
Last September, Khalil and Columbia United Apartheid Divest, which has vowed to escalate its tactics “until the empire crumbles,” were among those taking part in the campus takeover at the start of the school year.