Middle East Eye
Mahmoud Khalil sues Trump administration officials and pro-Israel groups for 'conspiracy'
Mahmoud Khalil sues Trump administration officials and pro-Israel groups for 'conspiracy'
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Tue, 07/14/2026 - 22:20
The suit also targets Canary Mission, Betar US and the Heritage Foundation think tank
Mahmoud Khalil, accompanied by his wife Noor Abdalla, raises his hands as he arrives for a press conference outside the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City, on 22 June (Kena Betancur/AFP)
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Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil has filed a lawsuit against senior Trump administration officials, the Heritage Foundation, Betar, and Canary Mission, seeking damages for unlawful conspiracy, he said in a press conference on Tuesday.
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Khalil's lawyers from Beldock Levine & Hoffman announced the lawsuit, alleging that these groups “sought to terrorize and make an example of” him and other non-citizen Palestinian rights activists "in an effort to intimidate and weaken the growing movement for Palestinian solidarity”.
The lawsuit was brought under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, according to CCR.
The lawsuit alleges that his targeting was driven by anti-Palestinian animus and that the “private anti-Palestinian groups” coordinated with administration officials to persecute Khalil and other Palestinian rights advocates.
“The goal was never to win an argument. The goal was always to manufacture fear, to convince people that the cost of speaking out would be too high. When those campaigns were not enough, they brought in the power of the state,” Khalil said of the groups.
Since 2024, Khalil has been targeted by the Trump administration due to his involvement in the anti-Gaza war protest encampments at Columbia University.
Khalil was detained in 2025 despite being a green card holder and being married to an American citizen. His detention lasted 104 days and caused him to miss the birth of his first child.
Khalil says the retaliation he’s faced for his advocacy will not silence him.
“We cannot let fear become the price of consciousness. To those who built this machinery to silence us, hear me clearly: it did not work. You detained me, and I'm standing here. You tried to make me a warning, and instead, you made me a plaintiff.”
Who are the defendants?
The lawsuit names senior presidential advisor Stephen Miller; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin; acting attorney general Todd Blanche; former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem; and John Armstrong, an official at the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs.
The lawsuit also names Canary Mission, a website that creates a publicly accessible blacklist of students, activists, and academics with pro-Palestinian views, or critics of Israel.
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The website conflates pro-Palestinian advocacy and anti-Zionism with antisemitism and supporting terrorism.
Canary Mission says it "documents individuals and organizations that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses and beyond".
The site is also used by Israel to prevent critics of Israel and pro-Palestinian advocates from entering Israel, including Palestinians and Jews.
Another group named in the suit is Betar US, a far-right pro-Israel advocacy group. Betar says its mission is to empower Jews to embrace their identity and defend their heritage. It calls itself one of the “most impactful Zionist movements in history” and has previously boasted about collecting names of people participating in pro-Palestine activities and then sending them to the Trump administration.
An investigation by the New York office of attorney general Letitia James found that the US chapter group - a US affiliate of the international organisation Betar - repeatedly targeted individuals based on their faith and ethnic origin, specifically Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and Jewish New Yorkers. It was forced to cease operations in New York state.
The Heritage Foundation is also named in the lawsuit. They say their mission is to “formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense”.
They released a 900-page manifesto dubbed Project 2025, which laid out a massive policy roadmap for the Trump administration to follow, including continuing unwavering support for Israel.
Khalil still has two cases pending against him, one of which involves his removal proceedings, in which a judge ruled he could be deported, but Khalil is appealing that decision to the US Board of Immigration Appeals. His other pending case is a federal constitutional challenge where his lawyers argued that his Fifth and First Amendment rights were violated by his detention and attempted deportation.
"I will not stop fighting until everyone who willingly contributed to my missing the birth of my son, and to taking 104 days of my life from me, answers for what they've done," Khalil said.
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