Geneva, April 2025 — The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) highlighted the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student activist at Columbia University who is currently a political prisoner in U.S. custody, describing it as a stark example of what it called the “rising tide of anti-Palestinian racism” in the United States.

This came as part of an important intervention delivered by the Centre during the general debate under Agenda Item 9: Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Forms of Intolerance, and Follow-up and Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, at the 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

On March 8, Mahmoud was arrested by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents without a warrant, following his peaceful activism advocating for an end to the genocide in Gaza and the liberation of Palestine. PRC emphasized that his detention constitutes a violation of his protected rights to freedom of expression and assembly and highlights the double standards in how human rights principles are applied in Western democracies.

The Centre also condemned Columbia University’s reported compliance with federal pressure, revealing student records to Congress in response to a renewed wave of political intimidation spearheaded by the Trump administration.

Quoting Mahmoud’s own letter from detention, PRC shared:

“My unjust detention is indicative of the anti-Palestinian racism that US administrations have demonstrated over the past 16 months as they continued to supply Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians. Anti-Palestinian racism is being used to violently repress Arab Americans, and other communities.”

PRC stressed that student activism must remain a protected and safe space for free expression and democratic participation. Universities are not merely centres of learning; they should be environments where the very principles taught—justice, human rights, and free speech—are practiced and upheld. The political targeting of students for their views undermines democratic values, renders legal protections hollow, and threatens the future of academic freedom.