Mahmoud Khalil sues Columbia, accusing it of ‘indifference’ to harassment of pro-Palestinian protesters

Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent pro-Palestinian demonstrator targeted by the Trump administration, and other former Columbia University student activists are suing their alma mater over its alleged indifference to harassment they faced there.

The lawsuit filed Monday alleges Columbia violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act when dealing with incidents against the Palestine Working Group (PWG), an organization the university suspended indefinitely in May 2025.

Khalil, who previously led the student group, was the first in a concerted campaign by the Trump administration to attempt to deport pro-Palestinian foreign students. He was arrested in March 2025 and held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody for months.

Khalil is still fighting the Trump administration’s deportation efforts and has taken his appeals to the Supreme Court after a circuit court ruled a federal judge did not have the ability to bar the Trump administration from deporting him.

The lawsuit is looking to force Columbia to reinstate PWG, take greater action against anti-Muslin discrimination, allow Khalil back on campus and pay monetary damages.

“Columbia laid the groundwork for my targeting by the Trump administration through its deliberate indifference and discrimination against Palestinian students,” Khalil said in a statement. “For over two years, we pleaded with Columbia, and Columbia did not care. Our safety and wellbeing did not serve the ideological project its Board of Trustees was protecting, so they traded us away. We are suing because no one should go through the hell Columbia put us through.”

The lawsuit alleges members of PWG were “antagonized and harassed without consequence” since its creation in 2018, but that the harassment accelerated following Oct. 7, 2023, after Hamas attacked Israel.

It said the harassment included doxxing of members by outside groups, threats against its members by peers on campus and Columbia itself calling the organization a “hostile group.”

Reached for comment, a spokesperson for Columbia declined to respond directly to the lawsuit, but said that “Creating a campus environment where every member of our community feels welcome, supported, and safe is fundamental to who we are as a University. It is also a responsibility we take seriously.

“Columbia is committed to protecting our community from discrimination and harassment, and responding promptly and appropriately when concerns arise,” the spokesperson said.

Columbia was at the center of the pro-Palestinian student protests that spread like wildfire across the country in the spring of 2024, leading to thousands of arrests on campuses. The university later paid an over $200 million fine to the Trump administration for the pro-Palestinian encampment on campus and agreed to change disciplinary and other school policies.