Mahmoud Khalil sues Columbia, accusing the university of “deliberate indifference” and failing to protect anti-Israel activists from alleged doxxing.By World Israel News StaffAnti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil and other former Columbia University students have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit accusing the university of failing to protect them from harassment and retaliating against them over their activism against Israel.The lawsuit, filed Monday in Manhattan federal court, names Khalil, the SIPA Palestine Working Group and the group’s president, Mohammad Zubairi, as plaintiffs.It alleges that Columbia violated federal civil rights law by failing to respond adequately to threats, doxxing and other alleged harassment directed at students because of their perceived Arab or Muslim ancestry or their political activism.The complaint accuses Columbia of “deliberate indifference” to the plaintiffs’ complaints and argues that university officials responded to reported harassment by increasingly treating their activism as a security problem.The plaintiffs contend that Columbia imposed additional restrictions on their events, altered disciplinary policies in ways that targeted criticism of Israel and eventually suspended the Palestine Working Group.Khalil, a former graduate student at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, emerged as one of the most prominent figures in the university’s anti-Israel protest movement during the Gaza war. At a press conference announcing the lawsuit, he accused Columbia of allowing institutional hostility toward anti-Israel activists to become entrenched.“We are suing because no student, regardless of their background, should go through the hell that Columbia put us through over all these years,” Khalil said.Khalil alleges he began reporting harassment to university officials in spring 2023, months before the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza dramatically intensified tensions on American campuses. The lawsuit claims those problems grew as Columbia became the center of a nationwide anti-Israel protest movement.Among the incidents cited by the plaintiffs was a doxxing campaign in which photographs and names of students appeared on a truck driven around Columbia’s campus under the heading “Columbia’s Leading Antisemites.”The plaintiffs also allege the university placed heightened security around their events and later suspended the Palestine Working Group.According to the New York Times, Columbia’s Office of Institutional Equity indefinitely suspended the organization in September 2025 over social media posts that university officials determined contributed to a harassing environment.Columbia declined to comment on the specific allegations while the litigation is pending.“Creating a campus environment where every member of our community feels welcome, supported and safe is fundamental to who we are as a university,” Columbia spokeswoman Samantha Slater said. The university also said it was committed to responding appropriately to discrimination and harassment complaints.The lawsuit comes against the backdrop of years of controversy over Columbia’s handling of antisemitism and anti-Israel demonstrations following October 7.Jewish students and faculty repeatedly reported harassment, intimidation and exclusion amid the protests, while anti-Israel activists accused the university of suppressing their political speech. Columbia itself has acknowledged that Jewish members of its community experienced what it called “painful, unacceptable incidents” and said institutional reforms were necessary.The Trump administration canceled approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia in March 2025, citing what federal officials described as the university’s continued failure to adequately address the harassment of Jewish students.Columbia later reached an agreement with the federal government under which it agreed to pay $200 million over three years to resolve multiple federal investigations into alleged violations of anti-discrimination laws. It separately agreed to pay $21 million to settle investigations brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.In February 2026, Columbia also reached a confidential settlement with Students Against Antisemitism, StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice and most of the Jewish student plaintiffs in a separate federal lawsuit.As part of that agreement, Columbia committed to additional antisemitism programming and scholarships for students who had studied, worked or lived in Israel.Khalil was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in March 2025. He spent 104 days in immigration detention in Louisiana before being released.The Trump administration has sought to deport him, arguing that his presence could have adverse foreign-policy consequences.His immigration case remains unresolved.The Board of Immigration Appeals issued a final administrative removal order in April, but litigation challenging his detention and potential deportation has continued through the federal courts.A federal appeals court temporarily prevented his re-detention while he seeks Supreme Court review.The post Anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil sues Columbia University appeared first on World Israel News.