Mamdani hosts Columbia U anti-Israel protest leader Khalil at mayoral residence

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday hosted Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Columbia University anti-Israel protest leader, at the mayor’s official residence for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Khalil was arrested by federal immigration authorities a year ago, with the Trump administration saying he was a threat to US interests and had committed fraud on his green card application. He was held in detention for several months until his court-ordered release, and has been battling deportation in court since.

Khalil has become a cause célèbre among many Democrats despite his hardline rhetoric, including calls to dismantle the Jewish state. The Trump administration’s crackdown on protesters also sparked alarm among many mainstream Jews.

Mamdani said in a statement that he and his wife, Rama Duwaji, hosted Khalil and his family to break the Ramadan fast and mark the one-year anniversary of Khalil’s arrest.

Mamdani hailed Khalil’s “profound courage,” saying he was detained “for exercising his First Amendment rights in protesting the ongoing genocide in Palestine.” Mamdani often accuses Israel of genocide, a charge Israel firmly rejects and that many Jews view as a libel. Mamdani says he is committed to international law, but no international court has found that Israel is guilty of genocide.

“Mahmoud is a New Yorker, and he belongs in New York City,” Mamdani said in the post, sharing a photo that showed Duwaji smiling at Khalil.

For Mahmoud Khalil, this past year has been marked by profound hardship—and by profound courage.

A year ago, Mahmoud was walking home through our city after sharing an iftar with his wife Noor when he was detained by federal agents, flown to Louisiana, and then held in an ICE… pic.twitter.com/6dBtLh0GeT

Advertisement

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) March 10, 2026

Mamdani has been a longtime supporter of Khalil, calling his arrest an attack on the freedom of speech.

Khalil was an organizer with Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), an alliance of campus groups that led the disruptive protests on the Ivy League campus after the start of the Gaza war. The group is no longer recognized by the university.

CUAD has praised violent “resistance” by Palestinians, including, explicitly, the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages. The group hosted pro-Hamas figures on campus, called for the “total eradication of Western civilization,” and distributed Hamas propaganda at a campus library.

Khalil served as a spokesperson for the group in its negotiations with the Columbia administration.

Since his release from detention, Khalil has justified the Hamas attack on Israel and dismissed concerns about antisemitism at Columbia.

In September, he called for the “collapse” of the “Zionist genocidal project and the ideology of supremacy that it’s built on.”

Mamdani is friendly with US President Donald Trump, despite their opposing views on most issues, and has asked Trump for leniency for Khalil.

Mamdani’s chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem, is one of Khalil’s lawyers in his case against the Trump administration.

The visit also stands out because last week, Duwaji was found to have liked social media posts celebrating the Hamas invasion of Israel and calling Hamas rapes of Israelis a hoax.

Inflammatory social media activity by members of Mamdani’s circle, much of it directed at Israel, has caused repeated controversies since Mamdani launched his campaign for mayor.

Over the weekend, two Islamists inspired by ISIS allegedly hurled homemade bombs at an anti-Muslim protest outside Mamdani’s residence.