NEW YORK (Diya TV) — Student activist Mahmoud Khalil has sued Columbia University and a senior dean, accusing the school of systematic discrimination against Palestinian students and their supporters.
Khalil announced the lawsuit Monday at a news conference in New York. He said Columbia created an environment that intimidated Palestinian students and limited their ability to speak about the Israel-Gaza conflict.
“Today, I’m filing a lawsuit against Columbia University and SIPA Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo,” Khalil said. He accused the university of “gross and systematic discrimination” against Palestinian students.
Khalil said students had warned Columbia about safety concerns for more than two years. He said university leaders failed to address those concerns. Instead, he argued, the school allowed policies and actions that targeted Palestinian students and their allies.
Khalil also linked Columbia’s actions to his detention by the U.S. government. He said the university’s treatment of pro-Palestinian students helped create conditions that later contributed to his targeting by federal immigration authorities.
“For over two years, we pleaded with Columbia. Columbia did not care,” Khalil said.
The lawsuit focuses on several actions that Khalil says harmed Palestinian students. He claims Columbia banned Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. He also accuses the university of using surveillance against students and faculty and repeatedly calling the New York Police Department to campus.
Khalil further criticized the university’s Office of Institutional Equity. He described the office as a tool for monitoring and intimidating students who supported Palestinian rights.
He also said Columbia hired private investigators who contacted him during class. According to Khalil, investigators questioned him about whether he attended certain campus events.
The lawsuit also accuses Columbia of failing to correct what Khalil calls false information about him during his detention. He says that failure allowed what he described as a misleading narrative about his conduct and role to spread.
Khalil claims the university also failed to properly investigate harassment reports. Instead, he says, Columbia treated events organized by pro-Palestinian groups as security threats. He also alleges that the university changed disciplinary rules in ways that targeted criticism of the Israeli government.
Khalil called for equal treatment for Palestinian students and their supporters.
“What we’re asking for is very simple: equal treatment,” he said.
The lawsuit comes more than a year after federal immigration officers detained Khalil in New York City. Officers took him into custody in March 2025 without a warrant and later transferred him to a detention facility in Louisiana.
Khalil, a lawful U.S. resident and former Columbia graduate student, spent months in detention. During that time, he missed the birth of his first child.
His immigration case remains active. In January, a federal appeals court ruled that a judge did not have jurisdiction to order his release.
Khalil has continued to challenge the actions taken against him. His case has drawn national attention because of broader debates over free speech, campus protests, immigration enforcement, and the treatment of Palestinian students at U.S. universities.
Columbia has faced intense scrutiny over its response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations and campus tensions. Khalil’s lawsuit now places those policies at the center of a legal challenge.
Khalil said Columbia President Jennifer Mnookin should act to protect Palestinian students and their allies. He urged the university to end what he called discriminatory treatment and ensure that students receive equal protection.
The lawsuit could add another major legal battle to the continuing debate over campus protests and Palestinian rights in the United States. It also puts Columbia’s policies toward student activism under renewed scrutiny.
