Families of hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack have filed a lawsuit against detained Columbia University protest leader Mahmoud Khalil and several student groups, accusing them of "aiding and abetting Hamas' continuing acts of international terrorism," The New York Post reported on Monday. The legal action comes as the US government simultaneously pursues deportation proceedings against Khalil.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Manhattan federal court, identifies Khalil as one of the leaders of anti-Israel protests that spread across Columbia's Morningside Heights campus last year. The plaintiffs claim these demonstrations effectively helped propagate Hamas' rhetoric following the Oct. 7 attack in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 others kidnapped.
"Defendants in this case are Hamas' propaganda arm in New York City and on the Columbia University campus," the lawsuit states. "Their self-described acts in furtherance of their goals to assist Hamas have included terrorizing and assaulting Jewish students, unlawfully taking over and damaging public and university property on Columbia's campus, and physically assaulting Columbia University employees."
The lawsuit further states that as Hamas initiated its attack, it called for supporters worldwide to "join the battle in any way they can," a message the defendants answered by organizing anti-Israel demonstrations at Columbia University. The plaintiffs include six family members of hostages still held in Gaza, alongside some released hostages including Shlomi Ziv and Iris Weinstein Haggai, daughter of murdered Israeli-Americans Gadi and Judith Haggai, and three American Israel Defense Forces soldiers.
Beyond Khalil's indictment of the Columbia protests, the US government alleged in a court filing on Sunday that Khalil withheld his employment with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in his visa application. According to Reuters, officials argue this omission should be grounds enough for deportation. The UN agency has become a flashpoint in the Gaza conflict after it was revealed that several UNRWA employees participated in the Oct. 7 attack, leading to Israel's decision to cease the agency's operations in its territory after 57 years.
US President Donald Trump's administration detained Khalil on March 8 and transferred him to Louisiana as part of efforts to remove him from the country. In the government's deportation case, officials claim Khalil's presence in the United States would have serious foreign policy consequences. Court documents indicate Khalil allegedly failed to disclose his role as a political officer with UNRWA in 2023, his work for the Syria office in the British embassy in Beirut, and his membership in Columbia University Apartheid Divest. Khalil, originally from Syria and an Algerian citizen, entered the US on a student visa in 2022 and later applied for permanent residency in 2024. In his previous statements, he has described himself as a "political prisoner".
The hostage families' lawsuit names additional defendants besides Khalil – Nerdeen Kiswani of Within Our Lifetime-United For Palestine, Maryam Alwan of Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, and Cameron Jones of Columbia-Barnard Jewish Voice for Peace. "Associational Defendants have distributed pro-terror propaganda produced by and literally stamped with the logo of the 'Hamas Media Office,'" the filing claims.
The lawsuit further suggests some defendants may have had prior knowledge of the Oct. 7 attack, citing a social media post by Columbia SJP minutes before the attack began: "Three minutes before Hamas began its attack on October 7, Columbia SJP posted on Instagram 'We are back!!' and announced its first meeting of the semester would be announced and that viewers should 'Stay tuned.'"
The hostage families' lawsuit argues the defendants are not protected by constitutional free speech rights, claiming their activities were coordinated with a foreign terrorist organization. "Associational Defendants are not independent advocates; they are expert propagandists and recruiters for international foreign terrorist organizations and nation-state proxies operating in plain sight in New York City," the lawsuit states, alleging violations of America's Antiterrorism Act.
