Tuesday on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and released by a federal judge, refused to condemn Hamas.
Co-host Pamela Brown said, “Do you specifically condemn Hamas, a designated terrorist organization in the United States, not just for their actions on October 7?”
Khalil said, “I condemn the killing of all Pal[estinians], of all civilians, full stop. And, but what I don’t want to get into is —”
Brown said, “But do you condemn Hamas, specifically?”
Khalil said, “No, I am very clear with condemning all civilians. I’m very straight in my position in that part. But it’s disingenuous to ask about condemning Hamas while Palestinians are the ones being starved now by Israel. It’s not condemning October 6, where 260 Palestinians were killed by Israel before October 7. So I hate this selective outrage of condemnation because this is not, 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 it’s no way anyone can justify the killing of civilians.”
Brown said, “Just to be clear, Mahmoud, we did ask about-, you know we’ve talked at length about your views, of course, on the Palestinians. But it is fair to ask you about whether you condemn Hamas because the Trump administration has claimed that you are a Hamas sympathizer. So it’s very important to actually ask that question in this broad conversation.”
Khalil said, “Yeah, I simply asked and protested the war in Palestine. That’s what I did. 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, it’s always, as I said, disingenuous and absurd to ask such questions when literally 62,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel. That’s why I wouldn’t really engage much into such questions on condemnation or not. Because selective condemnations is not, wouldn’t get us anywhere. It’s just like hypocrite, to be honest.”
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