On March 15, approximately 75 demonstrators gathered in Moore Square to protest the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, an anti-war activist from Columbia University. The event featured speakers from UNC Students for Justice in Palestine, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), Jewish Voices for Peace, and other groups. Key topics included threats to freedom of speech, continued Israeli attacks on Gaza, and unexpected support for Khalil among North Carolina's Democratic congresspeople. No elected officials attended the demonstration, which was more heavily surveilled by Raleigh police than previous pro-Palestine rallies.
The rally began with chants such as, “Palestine is not for sale, Donald Trump belongs in jail!” before Hashem Amireh was introduced as the first speaker. Amireh, president of the UNC graduate student union, was suspended in May 2024 for Palestine activism [1].
“We do what we do for the sake of the oppressed,” said Amireh, “For the sake of Palestinians who have endured almost eighty years of dispossession, violence, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.”
Amireh, who relies on a student visa, noted that he enjoys fewer legal protection than Khalil, a green card holder. He vowed to continue his anti-war activism despite the increased risk of deportation. As Amireh spoke, audience members held signs with slogans like “Jews say, free Mahmoud” and “Fight Nazis, not students.”
The Trump administration is seeking to deport Mahmoud Khalil using the Immigration and National Act of 1952, which allows the expulsion of non-citizens for almost any reason. Khalil’s deportation could be halted if the judicial branch finds the 1952 law unconstitutional under the First or Fifth Amendments. The Immigration and National Act was passed during the Second Red Scare, an anticommunist hysteria used to undermine various forms of domestic dissent. Forward magazine reports that Democratic Senator Pat McCarran introduced the law in part to keep out “Jewish Holocaust survivors suspected of being Soviet agents” [2].
The second speaker, Rania Masri of the North Carolina Green Party, discussed recent Israeli attacks on Gaza. She said, “In the past 24 hours alone, twelve Palestinians in Gaza were slaughtered, butchered, shredded by US-made weaponry dropped by the Israeli pilots. That was including four children. Nine people were killed this morning in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza while they were trying to distribute aid." According to NPR, eight of Israel's victims in the Beit Lahiya bombing were staff members of the UK-based Al-Khair Foundation, a humanitarian aid organization [3].
During her remarks, Masri defended her decision to vote for the Green Party in the 2024 presidential election, and also praised people who voted for PSL. Green Party nominee Dr. Jill Stein received 0.4 percent of the vote in North Carolina, while PSL’s Claudia Cruz garnered about 0.01 percent. Vice President Kamala Harris lost the state by 3.2 percent.
A speaker for the Palestinian Youth Movement linked recent Israeli attacks on Gaza and the West Bank to Khalil’s arrest: “These struggles are not far from us and the arrest Mahmoud Khalil is a prime example of that. As we all know now, undercover ICE agents kidnapped Mahmoud and claimed they were acting on State Department orders to revoke his student visa. When he explained to them that he had a green card, they claimed they would revoke that instead.”
Dozens of peace rallies have been held in Moore Square since October 2023. Speeches in the park are often followed by police-escorted marches. However, law enforcement presence seemed heavier at Saturday's event, with multiple officers patrolling the square and motorcycle cops stationed at nearby intersections. Raleigh city government and police have never moved to repress the ceasefire rallies, which have been able to maintain a safe, family-friendly atmosphere.
Sandra Korn of Jewish Voice for Peace addressed the crowd. She said, “What we saw in the last couple of weeks was a state-sponsored kidnapping targeting multiple students who spoke out for Palestinian human rights. All people of conscience, including Jewish people, should be demanding Mahmoud Khalil’s release immediately.”
Korn shared the news that North Carolina congresspeople Valerie Foushee and Deborah Ross had just signed a letter strongly criticizing Khalil’s detention [4]. The crowd cheered, pleasantly surprised at the move by two pro-Israel lawmakers.
AIPAC spent around $2 million to help elect Foushee in 2022. In May 2024, Foushee and other lawmakers travelled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in May 2024 to discuss plans for continued wars against Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran [5]. Netanyahu now faces an ICC arrest warrant for alleged war crimes, including starvation and attacks on civilians.
Ross has accepted over $20,000 from AIPAC since 2020 and staunchly refused to support a ceasefire throughout the US-Israeli assault on Gaza. In May 2024, she voted in favor of HR 6090, a bill aimed at suppressing criticism of Israel on college campuses. Though the bill failed in the Senate, similar efforts have succeeded in weakening free speech protections and helped lead to Khalil’s arrest.
The “Free Mahmoud Khalil Now” event concluded with a speaker from Mothers for a Ceasefire, who spoke about other regions where U.S. policies have contributed to ongoing conflicts, such as Sudan, Congo, and Haiti. Circling back to Palestine, she said, “It’s only freedom of speech when they promote a genocide on a nation. However, when we tell our politicians to stop killing children, we are the problem.”
Work Cited
Geller, Lena. "Something You Can’t Ignore: Q&A with Hashem Amireh, Who Was Suspended Following the Pro-Palestine Protests at UNC." Indyweek, 12 June 2024, https://indyweek.com/news/orange/something-you-cant-ignore-qa-with-hashem-amireh-who-was-suspended-following-the-pro-palestine-protests-at-unc/.
Silverstein, Andrew. "McCarran-Walter Act: State Department Plan to Deport Pro-Hamas Students." Forward, 7 March 2025, https://forward.com/news/702427/mccarran-walter-act-state-department-plan-deport-pro-hamas-students/.
Lonsdorf, Kat. "Gaza Air Strike: Israel and Al-Khair Foundation." NPR, 16 Mar. 2025, https://www.npr.org/2025/03/15/nx-s1-5329257/gaza-air-strike-israel-al-khair-foundation.
Foushee, Valerie. X (formerly Twitter), 17 March 2025, https://x.com/ValerieFoushee/status/1901708531016835402.
"Prime Minister Netanyahu to AIPAC delegation of Democratic Congressmen: We must win - there is no substitute for victory." Israeli PM YouTube Channel, 27 March 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrGI_9FDGR4.