Several Columbia University graduates ripped apart their diplomas on Saturday during a protest against the Trump administration and the arrest of a former student who is an anti-Israel activist.
The gathering, which took place during the school’s Alumni Day celebration, included some students and graduates of the School of International and Public Affairs, the New York Post reported on Sunday.
Those gathered were angry over the school’s cooperation with the Trump administration and the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, whom officials with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested on March 8, per a Breitbart News report. The outlet noted Khalil is a Palestinian activist and graduate of the university where he led radical protests.
Do you support the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil? pic.twitter.com/lJqT7eUeHv
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) March 30, 2025
“President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to deport foreign students who were fomenting anti-Israel and antisemitic protests on campus, which exploded under President Joe Biden in the wake of the October 7, 2023, terror attack by Hamas in Israel,” the report said.
“The Trump administration canceled some $400 million of grants to Columbia last week because of its perceived decision to ignore antisemitism. Campus activists have continued to protest against Israel, even endorsing violence,” it added.
According to the Post, one graduate named Amali Tower who ripped up her diploma on Saturday said, “I’m not a proud alumni at all, and instead I want to stand with the students, and I want to stand with Palestinians, and I want to stand with immigrants who are being rounded up and harassed, oppressed and deported as we speak.”
Video footage shows the group chanting, making statements to the media, and calling for Khalil to be freed.
According to the Post, Khalil is a spokesman for the group called Columbia Apartheid United Divest, which is anti-Israel. The article said he is now in custody and fighting the Trump administration’s efforts to deport him, even though he has a green card and student visa.
However, the report said, “The newest justification behind the push to boot him out of the country is that he allegedly hid ties to the controversial United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees — UNRWA — on his green-card application.”
Who is Mahmoud Khalil? Liberal media is reporting that he is a Palestinian detained by ICE for "anti-war activism." That's false.
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) March 11, 2025
Khalil is one of the leaders of Columbia U Apartheid Divest, a group that explicitly invites support for Hamas & terrorism.pic.twitter.com/eYrFcld9kO
The left has portrayed Khalil as the premier sympathetic victim of Trump’s deportation policies, Breitbart News reported on March 17.
The outlet said after he enrolled at Columbia University, he “began protesting Israel’s counter-offensive less than a week after Hamas launched its bloody and chaotic cross-border October 7 raid. The raiding Hamas gunmen yelled Islamic slogans as they killed roughly 1,000 Jewish civilians, including many young people at an early-morning rave.”
