Mahmoud Khalil says October 7 was unavoidable ‘moment in the Palestinian struggle’

Columbia University graduate and activist Mahmoud Khalil said on “The Ezra Klein Show” Tuesday that Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel was unavoidable.

Hamas killed around 1,200 civilians, taking over 240 individuals hostage and committing rapes during the attack, leading to the Israel-Hamas war. Khalil said on the show that “it felt frightening that we had to reach this moment in the Palestinian struggle,” prompting host Ezra Klein to ask him to clarify what he meant.

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“I was interning at … the United Nations Relief and Works Agency at the UN at their New York office. And as part of my internship, my research and work was focused on Palestine, on the situation in the West Bank and Gaza,” Khalil said. “And you can see that the situation is not sustainable. You have an Israeli government that’s absolutely ignoring Palestinians.”

“They are trying to make that deal with Saudi [Arabia] and just happy about their Abraham Accord without looking at Palestinians as if Palestinians are not part of the equation,” he added. “And they circumvented the Palestinian question.”

Hamas launched its attack to sabotage peace negotiations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, according to internal documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

“And it’s clear it’s becoming more and more violent. By October 6, over 200 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and settlers. Over 40 of them were children. So that’s what I mean by, unfortunately, we couldn’t avoid such a moment. And yeah, it was absolutely difficult to see not only the horrific images, but also the response of Israel, because I knew that’s what Netanyahu wants, because Netanyahu thrives on the killing of Palestinians.”

Khalil gained national attention after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) detained him in March, accusing him of “activities aligned with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” Authorities stripped him of his green card.

Democrats and immigration advocates vehemently opposed his detention. A New Jersey federal judge ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release Khalil from his detention in Louisiana in June.

Khalil entered the U.S. in 2022 to attend Columbia University on a student visa. He appeared at several protests on campus and became a leader with Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a group critics accuse of being “virulently anti-Israel” and “openly pro Hamas.”

Khalil refused to condemn Hamas during a July interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room.” While he unequivocally denounced the murder of civilians, he also said that “it’s disingenuous to ask about condemning Hamas while Palestinians are the ones being starved now by Israel.”

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