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Anti-Israel Agitators Arrested in New York Amid Nationwide Walkouts Protesting Pro-Hamas Activist’s ICE Arrest

‘By resistance … we mean action,’ one speaker says. ‘We mean … dealing blow after blow to our enemies.’

Protesters march to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil in New York City. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
Jessica Costescu and Jessica Schwalb
March 11, 2025

Several anti-Israel agitators were arrested in New York on Tuesday after clashing with police during a protest against the detainment of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student activist and foreign national whom the Trump administration moved to deport over his pro-Hamas campus organizing. It was part of a nationwide student and faculty walkout at several elite colleges across the nation.

NYPD moved in after the protesters refused to clear the roadway in front of City Hall. Agitators pushed back, and police began making arrests.

Among the crowd was Aidan Parisi, a Columbia graduate student who was arrested for storming Hamilton Hall last year. He was suspended last spring over his involvement in an event that featured a number of terror-tied speakers who advocated for violence against Jews. Also in attendance was Barnard College student and anti-Israel activist Maryam Iqbal, who was arrested with Parisi during last spring’s illegal encampments at Columbia.

Anti-Israel activist Maryam Iqbal

The crowd first gathered at Washington Square Park before marching to City Hall as part of a protest organized by New York University’s Faculty and Students for Justice in Palestine chapters and joined by the anti-Semitic group Within Our Lifetime. During the event, billed as a "rally against compliance with fascist policies," hundreds chanted in unison, "We want justice, you say how, release Mahmoud Khalil now."

One attendee sported a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine headband, while others displayed posters of militants holding AK-47s with the caption "Palestine will be free."

"By resistance … we mean action. We mean taking to the streets, mobilizing in our thousands, no, in our millions, and dealing blow after blow to our enemies," one agitator told the crowd.

At Columbia, a smaller crowd of about 40 faculty and students walked out of their classes and assembled outside the Low Memorial Library. Similar walkouts were staged at the City University of New York, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Los Angeles—most of which have faced anti-Semitism in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack. National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP)—an anti-Israel group accused of providing material support to Hamas—urged the protests, calling on "individuals to walk out of class, take over central spaces on campus, and assert our mass power" on Tuesday.

"In the face of the state’s existential attacks on the Student Movement and popular education, we declare that we, the united students, faculty, staff, and workers, are the university," NSJP posted to Instagram on Monday. "The popular movement against Zionism, imperialism, and fascism will not shy away in the face of federal threats; we will show our Board of Trustees, administrators, and the state that we will not back down."

At Columbia, protesters wore shirts and held signs sporting slogans like "FUCK ICE" and "PIGS ARE NOT KOSHER." Among the crowd was Joseph Howley, a Columbia classics professor and member of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP). Also in attendance was Bruce Robbins, a Columbia humanities professor who falsely denied that protesters at the encampment chanted for the "destruction of civilian lives."

Columbia professor Joseph Howley in the background of a protest

The crowd sang the "Ruth Song," which agitators also crooned the evening the New York Police Department cleared Hamilton Hall after a mob stormed it. They also chanted, "Free Mahmoud," and "Immigrants are welcome here." The protesters called out the interim Columbia president, chanting, "We will never let this slide, Katrina Armstrong you can’t hide" and "Katrina Armstrong what do you say, how many boots did you lick today."

Aharon Dardik, a founding member of the anti-Israel student group CU Jews4Ceasefire, which condemned Columbia’s Hillel for hosting an exclusive event with former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett last week, led the crowd in prayer to bring Khalil home safely, a protest attendee told the Washington Free Beacon.

One demonstrator asked bystanders to bring the protesters food, water, and sunscreen since they were exposed to the "very hot sun," a witness told the Free Beacon. "We need that support from our communities so if you are someone who has access to those things, please pull up and help us!"

"We are aware of a small protest on the steps of Low Library," a Columbia spokesperson told the Free Beacon. "Our public safety and University delegates were monitoring for any disruptions to campus activity. Our focus is to preserve our core mission to teach, create, and advance knowledge."

Khalil was taken into ICE custody Saturday night after the Trump administration pulled his visa and green card.

"This should serve as a warning to foreign students on temporary status in America—under this administration, if you support terror groups, we will deport you," a State Department official told the Free Beacon. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a similar statement on Sunday, saying he will "be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported."

President Donald Trump issued his own statement Monday, declaring Khalil’s detention marks "the first arrest of many to come."

That same day, a federal judge paused deportation proceedings pending a ruling on a petition Khalil filed in court claiming there was "no basis" for his arrest and subsequent detention.

In April, Khalil spearheaded negotiations with Columbia administrators during the pro-Hamas student encampments, representing Columbia University Apartheid Divest—the Ivy League institution's most anti-Semitic student organization—and demanding divestment from Israel. He pledged further unrest in the buildup to the fall semester, telling The Hill he would continue to push Columbia to divest from the Jewish state by "any available means necessary."

"And we’ve been working all this summer on our plans, on what’s next to pressure Columbia to listen to the students and to decide to be on the right side of history," Khalil said in August. "We’re considering a wide range of actions throughout the semester, encampments and protests and all of that. But for us, encampment is now our new base."

Last week, Khalil again served as a negotiator for CUAD after a mob of radical Columbia activists stormed a Barnard library. Once inside the building, the agitators distributed Hamas propaganda meant to justify Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack. A week earlier, CUAD stormed a separate campus building at Barnard, resulting in the hospitalization of a security guard and $30,000 in damages.

On Monday at least three Columbia professors canceled in-person classes in support of Khalil, the Free Beacon reported. English professor Joseph Albernaz, philosophy lecturer Ruairidh MacLeod, and an unnamed third emailed students to cancel courses or remove attendance requirements. MacLeod ditched the "discussion requirement for [his] Marx class," citing "sensitivity to the situation arising from the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil." Albernaz went as far as to give every student an "A" on an upcoming midterm scheduled for Thursday, saying he was "sickened at the news of the ICE detainment of a student." The third instructor canceled courses for the rest of the week, arguing it was "unsafe to continue teaching as usual."

Update, 11:30 p.m.: This story has been updated to include comment from a Columbia spokesperson.

Published under: Anti-Semitism , Columbia University , Higher Education , ICE , Israel , Mahmoud Khalil

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