OddsFrontMahmoud Khalil sues Columbia University over alleged anti-Palestinian discrimination
The complaint says the university ignored harassment and retaliated against Palestinian-rights advocates during a wider federal confrontation with campuses.
A new case against Columbia
Palestinian activist and former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil filed a federal lawsuit on September 14 accusing the university, its trustees and senior school officials of anti-Palestinian discrimination, retaliation and deliberate indifference to harassment. The Guardian reported that members of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs Palestine Working Group joined the action. Columbia declined to discuss pending litigation while saying it remained committed to responding to discrimination and harassment.
The complaint alleges that Khalil and other students repeatedly reported threats, doxing and coordinated intimidation after campus conflict intensified over Israel’s war in Gaza. It says administrators failed to protect Palestinian advocates and instead subjected them to disciplinary measures and restrictions. Those contentions have not been tested in court. Filing a complaint establishes the plaintiffs’ allegations and requested relief; it does not establish liability by Columbia or any named official.
The lawsuit follows detention and deportation proceedings
Khalil, a US permanent resident of Palestinian descent, became nationally prominent after immigration agents arrested him at university housing in March 2025. He spent 104 days in immigration detention and missed the birth of his son before being released. The government has continued seeking his removal, producing parallel litigation over detention, immigration procedure and constitutional protections for political expression. The new lawsuit is distinct because it targets Columbia’s alleged conduct toward students rather than federal officials’ deportation campaign.
Al Jazeera’s September 14 video report independently documents Khalil’s announcement and his claim that Columbia disregarded Palestinian students’ warnings. The Guardian’s fuller account says the plaintiffs identify the continuing suspension of the Palestine Working Group and the university’s response to campus demonstrations as part of the alleged pattern. Both reports attribute the disputed assertions to Khalil and the complaint rather than presenting them as proven findings.
A campus already under federal pressure
The case arrives after Columbia reached a major settlement with the Trump administration in 2025. A White House fact sheet said the university agreed to pay $200 million to settle federal claims, adopt stronger oversight of protest discipline, review regional programmes and improve protections against antisemitism. That official account presents the administration’s rationale and confirms the scale of federal intervention. It does not address or rebut the new plaintiffs’ separate allegation that Palestinian students experienced discrimination.
The litigation will test whether the plaintiffs can connect specific reports of harassment, university decisions and disciplinary actions to legally actionable discrimination or retaliation. Columbia will have an opportunity to challenge the factual and legal claims, and discovery could determine what administrators knew and how comparable complaints were handled. The next meaningful developments will be the university’s formal response, any motion to dismiss and judicial decisions on the scope of discovery. Until then, the verified development is the filing of a new civil-rights complaint, not a judgment against the university.