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‘SMOKESCREEN ANTISEMITISM’: HOW THE TRUMP-FUELED ARREST OF
MAHMOUD KHALIL ENDANGERS JEWS  
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Jamie Beran
March 12, 2025
Haaretz
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_ The White House has been abundantly clear: the arrest of
Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was pursued on behalf of Jews.
It's part of a wider strategy to obfuscate MAGA antisemitism and an
increasingly fascist regime. _

People demonstrate outside Thurgood Marshall United States
Courthouse, on the day of a hearing on the detention of Palestinian
activist and Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, in
New York City., Photo credit: Shannon Stapleton / Reuters // Haaretz

 

"Shalom Mahmoud" are not words I'd ever thought I would see from an
official White House social media account – certainly not when used
to announce the government's arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a
recent graduate of Columbia University.

Everything about this incident is nightmarish, but the White House's
decision to announce his arrest with "Shalom" must not be ignored. The
message is abundantly clear: U.S. President Donald Trump wants the
world to know that he's pursued this unconscionable act on behalf of
Jews.
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This is just one piece of this administration's plans to use the false
promise of Jewish safety as a smokescreen to carry out their
repressive and dangerous agenda. Indeed, the White House has made it
terrifyingly clear that this is only the beginning of the
administration's assault on activists – all in the name of fighting
antisemitism.

But of course, repressive policies and practices, including infringing
upon the freedom of speech, the right to protest, and the function of
the education system – especially higher education – are
priorities for the Trump administration because they serve his
authoritarian
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operandi.

American Jews understand that these rights and institutions are
critically important for protecting our community, as well as all
marginalized groups. In fascist regimes, these rights and institutions
were historically first on the chopping block; that the Trump
administration should follow suit is no surprise. What is alarming,
however, is the U.S. government's positioning of Jewish safety as
somehow a goal for this plan.

Khalil is a U.S. permanent resident. He is married to a U.S. citizen,
and his wife is due to give birth to their first son in a month. He is
also Palestinian and was a leader of the Columbia University protest
encampment following Israel's war in Gaza. The entire manner in which
the U.S. government has carried out Khalil's arrest appears aimed at
using his Palestinian identity and his beliefs to stoke fear and
division.

If Trump actually cared about Jewish people or wanted to end
antisemitism, he would be upholding our freedoms to speak, study, and
stand up for what we believe, not arresting students and tearing them
away from their families. It also wouldn't allow MAGA movement leaders
and administration officials to actively promote antisemitic and
racist conspiracy theories, use antisemitic messages to win elections,
or – lest we forget – perform Nazi salutes from its biggest
platforms, and then turn around and claim to be enacting unpopular
policies on behalf of Jewish people.

 
People demonstrate ahead of a hearing on the detention of Palestinian
activist and Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, in
New York City  (Photo credit: Shannon Stapleton / Reuters  //
 Haaretz)
Confused? That's the point. This latest episode is a blatant example
of how this administration uses "smokescreen antisemitism" to obscure,
confuse, and create cover for its despotic plans that harm everyone.
Their goal is to generate division and fear to grow their power and
wealth, and most importantly, to distract from their own, very real,
antisemitism.

They have learned that positioning repressive actions as benefiting
Jewish people obfuscates their audience and drives wedges between Jews
and their neighbors who might otherwise join together to oppose these
actions. And like all expressions of antisemitism, this strategy
directly harms Jews.

At Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, the organization I lead, we have
devoted much of our organizational time, resources and power toward
ending antisemitism – regardless of its source. We do this because
we understand how damaging antisemitism is, for Jewish people and for
everyone in the United States.

The American Jewish community has a wide range of views on the war in
Gaza, and college campuses have been a space of intense conflict,
protest, and in some cases incidents of true antisemitism and
harassment. Jews in the United States and worldwide are increasingly
experiencing antisemitism against the backdrop of the war, and this
poses a real threat.

All antisemitism is unacceptable. That includes when antisemitism
happens on college campuses and in protests. It also includes the
Trump administration's exploitation of Jewish fear, Jewish trauma, and
Jewish experience to enact mass deportations, to punish political
opponents, and to build a fascist regime.

This is an important moment that will test the American Jewish
community's values and resolve. I draw inspiration from the fact that
the judge who ruled that Mr. Khalil should not be deported is himself
Jewish. We cannot allow ourselves to be used as an excuse to justify
the Trump administration's plans to tear families apart – plans
which much of the American Jewish community opposes.

 
Pro-Palestinian protestors rally in support of Mahmoud Khalil outside
of the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse, where a hearing is underway
regarding Khalil's arrest, in New York City  )Photo credit: Agence
France-Presse (AFP) / Charly Triballeau  //  Haaewtz)
Whatever we think about Mahmoud Khalil's beliefs, he is a legal
resident of the United States who appears to be acting lawfully within
his rights in this country. When a government starts threatening
people's legal status because they disagree with the content of their
protected free speech, it is unquestionably dangerous to all
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Jewish people very much included. It's doubly dangerous when they
claim to do so in the name of Jewish safety.

There is no path to safety in an increasingly fascist regime that
involves destroying public and higher education, stifling free speech,
or hunting down protesters. There is no path to safety that involves
banning people because of their race or religion. There is no path to
safety that involves tearing immigrant families and communities apart.
The only way we can truly end antisemitism is by locking arms across
religions and races, across genders and generations, and insisting
that freedom and safety is for us all – no exceptions.

If we buy into the false promise of safety for some at the expense of
others – even others we may disagree with strongly – we may find
ourselves in a United States where we are no longer able to speak up
at all.

_[JAMIE BERAN is the CEO of Bend The Arc: Jewish Action
[[link removed]], the largest national Jewish organization
that works exclusively on U.S. domestic policy.]_

* Mahmoud Khalil
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* anti-Semitism
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* Jewish community
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* American Jewish community
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* Free Speech
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* dissent
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* Protest
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* First Amendment
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* Trump 2.0
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* ICE
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* Deportation
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* Fascism
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* Donald Trump
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* white supremacists
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* Nazis
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* Oct. 7
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* Hamas
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* Israel-Gaza War
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* Israel
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* Palestine
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* Gaza
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* Palestinians
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* Israel-Palestine
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* Genocide
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* Palestine solidarity
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