A sold-out audience of more than 100 gathered in an Oakland church Saturday to hear Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Palestinian organizer who was detained for months in 2025 and could still be deported if the Trump administration prevails in court.
Khalil spoke at the First Congregational Church of Oakland, a progressive hub near the city’s downtown, to promote his new book “No Land to Stand On: Notes from Detention.” Attendees draped in keffiyehs said his presence in the East Bay was a galvanizing force in local movements seeking an end to U.S. support for Israel.
“He definitely represents the turn of the tide,” said Andrea Chung, who traveled from San Jose to hear Khalil. “The new generation, the college kids – they’re the ones turning the tides.”
Khalil, 31, who was born in a Syrian refugee camp to Palestinian parents, was a graduate student at Columbia University in 2024 when he became a spokesperson and negotiator for its student movement condemning Israel during the Gaza war. Activists erected encampments and demanded – unsuccessfully – that university leaders cut ties with Israel.
Immigration agents were directed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to revoke Khalil’s residency, saying the protest activities had “adverse foreign policy consequences” — a move questioned by the courts. The move came as President Donald Trump condemned student protests cropping up across university campuses during the Gaza war, including at UC Berkeley and Stanford University.
Khalil was held in a Louisiana detention center for more than 100 days, and then released when a court held that his deportation was likely unconstitutional. The Trump administration continues to seek his removal from the country, and Khalil said Saturday he and attorneys were preparing to petition the U.S. Supreme Court.
“They want to make an example of me, to have a chilling effect on others,” Khalil told the audience on Saturday. “Even if I get deported, at least people care. At least people care about Palestinians.”
It was his second appearance in the Bay Area in the past four months. In June, Khalil appeared at an unofficial graduation ceremony at Stanford University to deliver a keynote address — after graduates had protested the speech of Google’s CEO over the tech giant’s ties to Israel.
The event was organized by Aroc Action, a Bay Area nonprofit that provides legal services and seeks to build political power among residents of Middle Eastern and North African heritage.
Khalil’s appearance Saturday came after two victories for pro-Palestinian activists in the Bay Area.
In September, the California Attorney General’s office agreed to dismiss felony charges against five pro-Palestinian Stanford University protesters related to a protest in 2024. The month prior, felony charges were also dismissed against activists who had halted traffic on the Bay Bridge the same year.