The weaponization is real - it's coordinated and powerful. It is not looking good for either free speech or academic freedom - signs are that Columbia has bowed, and other schools may follow.
Khalil gave an interview to Reuters just hours before his arrest. He said this:
"What more can Columbia do to appease Congress or the government now?" Khalil told Reuters hours before his arrest, noting that Columbia had repeatedly called in police to arrest protesters and had disciplined many pro-Palestinian students and staff, suspending some. "They basically silenced anyone supporting Palestine on campus and this was not enough. Clearly Trump is using the protesters as a scapegoat for his wider agenda fighting and attacking higher education and the Ivy League education system."
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-authorities-arrest-palestinian-student-protester-columbia-university-students-2025-03-09/
https://archive.is/9ETe0
Khalil had appealed to Columbia, citing the wave of hate and death threats he received after the coordinated attacks by the most vocal of the weaponization crowd.
Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian who helped lead negotiations between Columbia University and student protesters, had appealed to the school for protection from harassment and possibly Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents one day before the Trump administration detained him on Saturday, emails obtained by Zeteo show.
The most recent among the leaked messages was an email Khalil, a green card holder, sent to Columbia interim president Katrina Armstrong on March 7. “Since yesterday, I have been subjected to a vicious, coordinated, and dehumanizing doxxing campaign led by Columbia affiliates Shai Davidai and David Lederer who, among others, have labeled me a security threat and called for my deportation,” he began.
“Their attacks have incited a wave of hate, including calls for my deportation and death threats. I have outlined the wider context below, yet Columbia has not provided any meaningful support or resources in response to this escalating threat,” he added.
https://zeteo.com/p/scoop-emails-show-mahmoud-khalil-ask-columbia-protection-ice
Shai Davidai in fact had been suspended from campus last year over allegations he had harassed university staff. He of course denies having a "direct line" to the Trump Administration but I'm betting on him and the rest of the "anti-semitism" crowd having huge influence over the arrest.
Also, look at the video in the David Lederer post. See how it's been manipulated to falsely identify Khalil was one of the "masked" demonstrators? It's very amateurish - he clearly is not wearing the same clothing as the masked protester. But it's a good illustration of demonization and false accusations employed by the "anti-semitism" crowd. Khalil was a negotiator, a conduit between Columbia Admin and the protesters.
Yet there is hope:
Jewish faculty at Columbia held a rally and news conference in support of Khalil outside a university building on Monday, holding signs saying "Jews say no to deportations."
"There is a chill in the air. It's a chill of fear and despair," said Marianne Hirsch, the child of Holocaust survivors who grew up in Romania and is now a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia.
Demonstrators on the streets of New York City, along with the state attorney general and the American Civil Liberties Union have denounced Khalil's arrest by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents as an attack on free speech.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/mahmoud-khalil-immigration-arrest-columbia-protests-1.7479146
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