'Every American must resist and stand up' - activists occupy Trump Tower following student's arrest

Record ID: 1983372

  • Title: 'Every American must resist and stand up' - activists occupy Trump Tower following student's arrest
  • Date: 13th March 2025
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MARCH 13, 2025) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS CHANTING AND IN ZIP TIES OUTSIDE OF TRUMP TOWER / PROTESTERS BEING LED BY POLICE ONTO NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT (NYPD) POLICE BUS (SOUNDBITE) (English) SONYA MEYERSON-KNOX, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS FOR JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE, SAYING: "Over 300 Jews and allies took over the downstairs
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: Jewish Voice for Peace Mahmoud Khalil Trump Tower
  • Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • Country: US
  • Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,North America,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA001865913032025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Scores of people poured into the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City on Thursday (March 13) to protest the arrest and detention of Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, whom the Trump administration aims to deport over his pro-Palestinian activism.
    The arrest of Khalil, who is in immigration custody in Louisiana after his arrest in New York on Saturday, has sparked an outcry by Democratic lawmakers, the United Nations special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian territories, and civil liberty advocates, among others.
    Jewish Voice for Peace, which describes itself as a progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization, carried out Thursday's demonstration. The group said it was "to ensure that we have the right to protest, that we have the right to freedom of expression and sort of in opposition to everything that the Trump regime is doing to our democracy right now," said Sonya Meyerson-Knox, director of communications for Jewish Voice for Peace.
    Trump Tower, located on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, is home to the Trump Organization and where President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump own a penthouse apartment. Their son, Barron, has been living there since beginning his freshman year at New York University in the fall.
    "Over 300 Jews and allies took over the downstairs of Trump Tower in protest of the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil," said Meyerson-Knox. Demonstrators wore red shirts reading "JEWS SAY STOP ARMING ISRAEL," and chanted "Free, Free, Free Palestine!"
    Police arrested some of the protesters. The NYPD said 98 arrests were made.
    "These people are out here putting their bodies on the line for our democracy. We all have to stand up and take that risk because if we don't, our democracy will be gone," said Jamaal Bowman, former U.S. Representative for New York's 16th congressional district outside of Trump Tower.
    "We cannot allow Donald Trump to turn us into a dictatorship, an authoritarian, fascist regime, which it currently is right now as he's governing," he continued. "We gotta push back, and Senate Democrats need to push back, vote no on cloture, vote no on this heist of a Republican bill and bring them back to the table to govern for the people."
    "We know that fascist regimes try these things," said Nate Cohen, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace. "They test these cases. They try to see if people will comply, if people will roll over and allow them to force this kind of illegal, undemocratic activity on us."
    Meyerson-Knox emphasized the need for continued pressure on the government to uphold civil liberties and demanded the release of Khalil.
    "We're not going to stop until he is freed and his civil liberties are returned to him," she said.
    The Trump Organization did not immediately provide comment.
    By arresting Khalil on Saturday, the Trump administration began fulfilling its campaign promise to deport foreign-born activists who participated in the wave of protests on U.S. college campuses last year. The protests followed Israel's military assault on Gaza, which came after the October 2023 attack by the militant group Hamas, which controlled the Palestinian enclave.
    Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the United States, has been a prominent figure in the pro-Palestinian student movement at Columbia, perhaps the most prominent of the dozens of U.S. universities where demonstrations erupted last year.
    "Mahmoud Khalil, we love you," said Bowman. "Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for standing up. Thank you for putting yourself at risk. You are helping us find our consciousness. You are helping us find our humanity, and we're out here fighting for you and people across the country and around the world will continue to fight for you, brother."
    Trump branded Khalil a "Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student" on social media and has said his arrest is the first "of many to come."
    (Production: Roselle Chen, Hussein Al Waaile, Jeenah Moon)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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