Anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil rationalized Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack in a new interview with The New York Times posted on Tuesday.Appearing on the Times' podcast, "The Ezra Klein Show," the Columbia University graduate student said that though he thinks the Hamas attack that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel in late 2023 was wrong, he saw it as a desperate attempt to make sure the world knew the plight of Gazans at the hands of Israel."And to me, it’s a desperate attempt to tell the world that Palestinians are here, that Palestinians are part of the equation. That was my interpretation of why Hamas did the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel," Mahmoud told host Ezra Klein.ANTI-ISRAEL RINGLEADER MAHMOUD KHALIL POSTS $1 BOND AFTER FEDERAL JUDGE RULES TRUMP ADMIN CAN'T DETAIN HIMWhen asked about his perception of the deadly attack, he said it was an act to "break the cycle, to break that Palestinians are not being heard.""Because at that point, there was no political process. It was clear that the Saudi-Israel deal is very imminent, and Palestinians wouldn’t have any path to statehood and self-determination," he said.The activist clarified he does not believe Hamas’ actions were justified, stating, "So they had to do that, according to their calculations — which, it’s obvious, were not right."He added that "targeting civilians is wrong."CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTUREKhalil, born to Palestinian parents in Syria, has become a central figure in recent months for the anti-Israel protests on American college campuses following the Oct. 7 attack. Immigration authorities arrested him in March at Columbia University for being a ringleader of anti-Israel activism on campus. An immigration judge ruled that Mahmoud, who was in the U.S. on a student visa, could be deported after Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote a memo stating that his campus protests were contrary to U.S. foreign policy interests.In separate statements, Rubio declared that the U.S. could revoke anyone’s visa, especially if they support Hamas or promote chaos on college campuses. "So when you apply for a student visa or any visa to enter the United States, we have a right to deny you for virtually any reason," he said. "But I think being a supporter of Hamas and coming into our universities and turning them upside down, being complicit in what are clearly crimes, vandalization, complicit in shutting down institutions…If you told us that’s what you intended to do when you came to America, we would have never let you in. And if you do it once you get in, we’re going to revoke it and kick you out," Rubio added.Despite the effort to deport Mahmoud, a federal judge ordered him to be released on bail while his immigration and civil cases proceed through the courts.DOJ SEEKS TO KEEP ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVIST KHALIL DETAINED IN LOUISIANA IMMIGRATION JAILElsewhere during the Times interview, Mahmoud empathized with Gazans’ rage towards Israel."But we cannot ask Palestinians to be perfect victims after 75 years of dispossession, of killing people in Gaza, being under siege — at that point for over 17 years. Palestinians in the West Bank being stopped at checkpoints, settlers attacking them at every opportunity. The human dignity of Palestinians was absent — and still is, unfortunately."