The following is the opinion
and analysis of the writer:
Stuart Brody
The recent controversy surrounding Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest and incarceration raises serious issues of Constitutional law, and the Trump administration’s strenuous crackdown on dissent. These are troubling trends, to be sure. I would like to add a thought that is often lost in the controversy.
As a former civil rights lawyer, I view the action taken against Mr. Khalil as a likely violation of his Constitutional protection of free speech, applicable to citizens and non-citizens alike. Also, the statute invoked by Department of Homeland Security to deport him is of questionable applicability in this case. Nonetheless, as many of us admirably align ourselves in defense of American values, we might give a moment’s thought to where Mr. Kahlil himself is aligned.
People are also reading…
I cannot readily find anything online reliably quoting his public statements prior to his arrest. But in his letter of March 18 from a Louisiana jail, he states: “My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine.”
It is important to understand what the term “free Palestine” means. Although a certain ambiguity is inherent in the phrase, its most common, likely and necessary meaning — as deployed in hundreds of pro-Palestinian rallies around the world — is the destruction of the State of Israel and the consequent dissolution of Jews comprising it. In other words, like the similar cry “from the river to the sea,” it is not merely a call to have a displaced people find national solidarity through reasonable means but seeks the deployment of violence against Jews.
While this content may not defeat the applicability of Constitutional rights, it illuminates the nature of Mr. Khalil’s advocacy. So I therefore ask, who among us wishes to be aligned with views of that nature?
One of the most controversial moments of Trump’s first presidency was his statement that racists, neo-Nazis and white supremacists were among the “good people” rallying in Charlottesville in 2017. I think we need to ask ourselves whether Mr. Khalil — in his thinly disguised racism and antisemitism — can claim to be the “good person” many of his supporters wish him to be, simply because he takes cover behind cherished American freedoms.
Follow these steps to easily submit a letter to the editor or guest opinion to the Arizona Daily Star.
Stuart H. Brody is a lawyer, and author of The Law of Small Things: Creating a Habit of Integrity in a Culture of Mistrust: and Humphrey and Me, the 2024 winner of the Grateful American Book Prize. He is an adjunct instructor of ethics at the University of Arizona and a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Ethics in Public Life at the State University of New York.
