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Anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil appeared to refuse to explicitly condemn the terrorist group Hamas and instead took issue with the “selective condemnation” of the plight of the Palestinian people during an interview on Tuesday.
In response to a question from CNN’s Pamela Brown on whether he would “specifically condemn Hamas, a designated terrorist organization in the United States, not just for their actions on October 7th,” Khalil appeared to try to avoid denouncing the terrorist organization.
“I condemn the killing of all civilians, full stop,” Khalil told Brown.
Brown interjected during Khalil’s answer, asking him, “But do you condemn Hamas specifically?”
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“I‘m very clear with condemning all civilians. I‘m very straight in my position in that, in that part,” Khalil said. “But it‘s disingenuous to ask about condemning Hamas while Palestinians are the ones being starved now by Israel.”
Khalil is a graduate student at Columbia University who was released on bail from an immigration detention center in June following an order by U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz, who said it was “highly, highly unusual” to keep a legal U.S. resident in custody who doesn’t have accusations of violent offenses or that he’s a possible flight risk.
He was arrested in March at Columbia over his anti-Israel activism on campus, and an immigration judge ruled he could be removed from the country based on a memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that said his campus protests were not aligned with U.S. foreign policy interests.
The Department of Homeland Security has also said that Khalil purposely did not reveal that he was employed by the Syrian office in the British Embassy in Beirut when he applied for permanent U.S. residency.
Instead of condemning Hamas, Khalil talked about violence against Palestinians.
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“It‘s not condemning October 6th, where 260 Palestinians were killed by Israel on October, before October 7th,” Khalil said. “So I hate this selective outrage of condemnation, because this wouldn‘t lead to a constructive conversation. And this is also like what we want to deal with is the root causes of why that happened. And, and it‘s in no way anyone can justify.”
Brown pressed Khalil, asking him “whether you condemn Hamas because the Trump administration has claimed that you are a Hamas sympathizer.”
“That‘s what I did,” Khalil said. “That‘s my duty as a Palestinian, as a human being right now, is to ask for the stop of the killing in my home country. And that‘s consistent with who I am. I‘m a firm believer in international law and human rights and all my values come from that point.
“It‘s just like to me… disingenuous and absurd to ask such questions when literally 62,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel, and that‘s why I wouldn‘t really engage in much into such questions on condemnation or not. Because selective condemnation is not, wouldn‘t get us anywhere. It‘s just like hypocrite, to be honest.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “It shouldn’t be difficult to condemn a heinous terrorist organization that is responsible for brutal acts of rape, murder, and torture against innocent people – but apparently it is for Khalil.”
Jackson added that “While in the United States, Khalil has consistently engaged in conduct detrimental to American foreign policy interests, including ongoing support for Hamas and harassment of Jewish students on campus. All of the Democrat politicians who have been embracing Khalil must explain why they are supporting someone who can’t even condemn terrorists.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Khalil’s lawyer for comment.
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