Türkiye Mission

Mahmoud Khalil participated in the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia in April 2024 as a lead negotiator [00:36:30] on behalf of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), an anti-Israel student coalition. He has also expressed support for Hamas terrorism as a CUAD representative.

CUAD is a coalition of “over 80 student groups working toward the goal of collective liberation.” CUAD is part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. The group's demands included “a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, divestment from Israel…and to reinstate” the pro-terror campus groups Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) after the Columbia administration suspended them. CUAD members have also declared that their goal is "to weaken US imperialism” and the "total eradication of Western civilization."

In March 2025, Khalil was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which reportedly revoked his student visa. A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said that Khalil "led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization." Khalil was scheduled to appear before a federal immigration judge.

On October 7, 2024, the first anniversary of Hamas’ terror attack on Israel, Khalil participated in a leadership role in a pro-Hamas protest organized by CUAD at Columbia. The next day, CUAD wrote that it was necessary to "bring the war home."

For more information on the anti-Israel movement’s war on America, check Canary Mission’s campaign “Bringing the War Home.”

On March 5, 2025, Khalil served [video 1] as a negotiator, after pro-Hamas agitators occupied the library lobby at Barnard College in support of students suspended for "interrupting a 'History of Modern Israel' class on Jan. 21 and distributing fliers, including one that showed a jackboot squashing a Jewish star." The takeover was organized by CUAD. During the protest, anti-Israel activists reportedly shared posters that read: "DEATH TO AMERICA," writing the same message on the library's guest book. Classes were reportedly disrupted. The police were sent to the location, citing a "bomb threat," making a series of arrests.

On March 24, 2024, CUAD co-organized a pro-terror event that hosted Khaled Barakat, a leader of a foreign terror organization. The event was titled: “Palestinian Resistance 101.” The event also featured Charlotte Kates and Nerdeen Kiswani. Kates and Barakat are the heads of Samidoun, an organization banned in Germany and Israel for its ties to terrorism and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Kiswani is the head of Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a pro-terror activist group responsible for the disruptive protests across New York City.

Mahmoud Khalil's Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia

On April 24, 2024, the New York chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) posted on Instagram: “THE PEOPLE’S (POPULAR) UNIVERSITY FOR PALESTINE: For the past week, students at Columbia’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment have put on alternative programming for those joining on the lawns, from teach-ins to cultural performances…” The post included a video in which Khalil appeared [00:00:31] dancing at the encampment, alongside other anti-Israel activists.

On April 26, 2024, the New York Post reported: “The anti-Israel tent encampment at Columbia University is being led by a cohort of controversial student leaders…these students are the ones negotiating directly with leaders of the Ivy League university – holding campus hostage with dozens of tents and hundreds of protesters splayed out on the lawn…” The article quoted Khalil saying: “The university understood that we cannot operate on timelines. We cannot operate under time pressure.”

In an April 27, 2024 Quds News Network (QNN) interview posted on X, Khalil said [00:00:05] in Arabic: “We have been negotiating since last night for more than 11 hours with the university to meet our demands regarding the cutting economic and academic ties with Israeli universities and the universities involved in slaughtering our Palestinian people…”

On April 29, 2024, Bwog Columbia Student News reported: “...Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) held a press conference to address the end of negotiations and the University’s plans to clear the Encampment…” Speaking on behalf of CUAD, Khalil said: “...the students in this Encampment are a gift to Columbia” and “...the University should be proud of its student activists rather than suspend them and ‘trample its reputation.’”

On April 30, 2024, a user posted on Instagram a video interview from CNN in which Khalil was asked [00:00:01]: “Are you…going to listen to the University and leave the encampment here?” Khalil replied [00:00:04]: “Of course not! The University is the one who should listen to us. They should listen to their student body who are demanding to end the war that’s happening in Palestine. Our…demands are clear…regarding divestment from the Israeli occupation that companies that are profiting [sic] and…contributing to the genocide of our people…”

Asked by CNN [00:00:47]: “How far are you all willing to go here on campus?”, Khalil replied [00:01:08]: “...the students will remain here…until they achieve their…demands.”

On April 30, 2024, USA Today reported: “The school…suspended graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, lead negotiator for Columbia University Apartheid Divest in talks with the administration that have failed to resolve the crisis.”

On May 2, 2024, the BBC, in a news brief titled: “Columbia student has suspension reversed,” reported: “...Mahmoud Khalil…was suspended yesterday. Today…Khalil received a surprising message: it was abruptly reversed.” Khalil reportedly said: “[They said] that after reviewing the evidence, they don’t have any evidence to suspend…"

The BBC report said: “Khalil, a Palestinian international student who was born in [sic] raised in Syria, said that the thought of suspension had ‘been stressful,’ given that his visa in the US is dependent on his status as a student.”

On April 26, 2024, The Verge reported: “Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student who has been involved in the negotiations with Shafik’s office, also spoke, saying international students were especially at risk. ‘I am here on a foreign visa. That’s why for the past six months, I’ve barely appeared on the media,’ Khalil said.”

The encampment was also in support of the BDS movement.

Rudy Martinez

Status: Professional

University: The CUNY Graduate Center, John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY), Texas State University

Rudy Martinez was arrested during an anti-Israel encampment protest in 2024. Martinez also participated in multiple pro-Hamas and anti-Semitic disruptions and expressed support for terrorists in late 2023 and early 2024.

Martinez’s anti-Israel activism took place during Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists. Israel launched the war, called called “Swords of Iron,” after a series of Hamas terror attacks and war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings. The atrocities were executed on October 7, 2023, and left approximately 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded.

As of February 2025, Martinez was a member [00:00:09] of the “CUNY 8.”

For more information, check Canary Mission’s campaign "Outside Agitators Arrested at CCNY Encampment."

Mahmood Mamdani

Status: Professor

Org: BDS, SJP

University: Columbia University

Mahmood Mamdani has called for the “dismantlement” of the state of Israel, compared Israelis to Nazis and spread hatred of Israel and Zionism.

Mamdani also spoke at and participated in the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia in April 2024.

As of April 2021, Mamdani was the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University (Columbia). He was also a Professor of Anthropology, Political Science and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) at Columbia.

Mamdani is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and promoted BDS initiatives at Columbia in 2002, 2009 and 2016.

In 2009, Mamdani was an activist with the Columbia Palestine Forum, whose website described the Forum as “a collective of Columbia University students and supporters, organizing together in our campus and communities to support the rights of Palestinians to education and self-determination.”

In 2011, Columbia University hosted the first National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) conference. At the conference, SJP adopted “points of unity,” including “ending Israel’s occupation” and calling for the “right of return.” Columbia professors Rashid Khalidi gave the opening remarks and Mahmood Mamdani delivered the keynote address.

Mamdani also endorsed a 2016 BDS campaign launched by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a coalition of SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) that promotes BDS at Columbia.

As of April 2021, Mamdani was a Director and Professor at the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR) in Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, since 2010. He was appointed Chancellor of Kampala International University (KIU) in Uganda in 2020.

Mamdani was a professor at the University of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania from 1973 to 1979, a professor at Makerere University in Uganda from 1980 to 1993 and a professor at the University of Cape Town from 1996 to 1999.

In May 2020, Mahmood was appointed a member of the Advisory Board of the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF).

Mamdani received a Ph.D. from Harvard University (Harvard) in 1974, a master’s degree in Political Science from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (The Fletcher School) in 1968 and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1967.

As of June 2025, The Guardian reported that Mahmood Mamdani was the father of Zohran Mamdani, who is running for mayor of NYC before his primary on June 24, 2025.