Over one hundred students gathered at the Chess Plaza at 5:30 p.m. March 13 before marching towards the Administration Building in response to the arrest and looming deportation of Columbia student activist Mahmoud Khalil.
The event was a collaboration between the UTD chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, the UT Arlington chapter and the University of North Texas chapter. The protest was part of a larger national trend of protests against Khalil’s detainment and the dubious legality of his arrest. Khalil, a prominent leader of pro-Palestine demonstrations at Columbia, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement March 8 despite being a permanent resident.
UNT marketing senior and SJP organizer Talia Ahmad said that solidarity between students is important during this period, where the government is working to arrest student organizers because of their message. Ahmad said these arrests are not unique to Columbia.
“The arrest of Mahmoud Khalil is part of a broader attack on student organizers,” Ahmad said. “For being a prominent representative of his branch of student leaders, Khalil was kidnapped, and at UNT we have felt the same chilling effect as state legislators attack our movement.”
On March 2, state representative Mitch Little sent a letter to the UNT administration demanding the removal of an art exhibit within their student union created by UNT art student Fatima Kubra titled “I Bear Witness.” The public pressure following the letter led to UNT removing the art piece by March 4.
UTD political science sophomore and SJP organizer Aysha Ahmed said what the federal government was doing to Khalil was unacceptable, and that students needed to stand up against it together to show that no matter what, they would continue to fight for an end to Israel’s occupation and genocide in Palestine.
“We will continue to organize together to emphasize that from Columbia to UTD, we are all SJP,” Ahmed said.
Ahmed said that Khalil was illegally abducted because he was a prominent face in the Columbia encampment movement, and that attempting to deport him was part of an attempt to intimidate and silence other student organizers. Ahmed said UTD SJP would not be deterred and that even when 21 people were arrested in Chess Plaza on May 1 last year, the protests continued.
The march is the largest protest at UTD since the arrests. Portable cameras were set up around campus in advance of the protest, with members of UTDPD observing the protesters marching from inside the Administration Building. No one was arrested during the protest.
The march was scheduled to end directly before another SJP community event, where students and community members gathered for Maghrib prayer and a community Iftar. Ahmed said the protest wasn’t simply about making noise, but also about building a strong community that could call for justice before going through the daily tasks associated with the month of Ramadan.
UTD is still pursuing the charges against the 21 students, faculty and community members arrested on May 1.