{"id":305236,"date":"2025-03-17T07:15:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T07:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=305236"},"modified":"2025-03-18T08:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T08:11:09","slug":"professor-at-center-of-columbia-university-deportation-scandal-is-former-israeli-spy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=305236","title":{"rendered":"Professor at Center of Columbia University Deportation Scandal Is Former Israeli Spy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alan MacLeod \u2013 MintPress News March 11, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The professor at the center of the Columbia University deportation scandal is a former Israeli intelligence official, MintPress News can reveal.<\/p>\n

Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate of the university\u2019s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), was abducted by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) Saturday for his role in organizing protests last year against Israel\u2019s attack on Gaza. Khalil\u2019s dean, Dr. Keren Yarhi-Milo, head of the School of International and Public Affairs, is a former Israeli military\u00a0intelligence officer<\/a>\u00a0and official at Israel\u2019s Mission to the United Nations. Yarhi-Milo played a\u00a0significant role<\/a>\u00a0in drumming up public concern about a supposed wave of intolerable anti-Semitism sweeping over the campus, thereby laying the groundwork for the extensive crackdown on civil liberties that has followed the protests.<\/p>\n

Spooks in Our Midst<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Before entering academia, Dr. Yarhi-Milo\u00a0served<\/a>\u00a0as an officer and an intelligence analyst with the Israeli Defense Forces. Given that she was recruited into the intelligence services because of her ability to speak Arabic fluently, her job likely entailed surveilling the Arab population.<\/p>\n

After leaving the world of intelligence, she\u00a0worked<\/a>\u00a0for Israel\u2019s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. While there, she met and married her husband, Israel\u2019s official United Nations spokesperson.<\/p>\n

Although she is now an academic, she has never left the world of international security, making the subject her area of expertise. She has made a point of trying to lift women\u2019s voices in the field. One of these was the then-U.S. Director of National Security, Avril Haines, whom she\u00a0spoke\u00a0<\/a>with in 2023. But even though Khalil was a student in her school, she had nothing to say about his arrest. Indeed, rather than speak out on the issue (as activists have demanded), she instead chose this week to invite Naftali Bennett, prime minister of Israel from 2021 to 2022, to speak at Columbia. Students protesting Tuesday\u2019s event were\u00a0condemned<\/a>\u00a0by university authorities for \u201charassing\u201d Yarhi-Milo.<\/p>\n

Unprecedented Protests, Unprecedented Repression<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Columbia was the epicenter of a massive protest movement across university campuses nationwide last year. It is\u00a0estimated<\/a>\u00a0that at least eight percent of all American college students participated in demonstrations denouncing the genocidal attack on Gaza and calling on educational institutions to divest from Israel. The response was equally vast in its scale. Well over 3,000 protestors were\u00a0arrested<\/a>, including faculty members themselves.<\/p>\n

The nationwide movement began at Columbia on April 17, when a modest Gaza solidarity encampment was established. Protestors were shocked when university president Minouche Shafik immediately called in the New York Police Department \u2013 the first time the university had allowed police to suppress dissent on campus since the famous 1968\u00a0demonstrations<\/a>\u00a0against the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n

Mahmoud Khalil was among the leaders of the movement. The Syrian-born Palestinian refugee was willing to speak calmly and cogently to the press about the protest\u2019s goals. A permanent resident of the United States, he was abducted by ICE on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a radical foreign pro-Hamas student on the campus of Columbia University. This is the first arrest of many to come,\u201d President Trump\u00a0stated<\/a>. Secretary of State\u00a0Marco Rubio<\/a>\u00a0echoed Trump\u2019s ominous threat,\u00a0announcing<\/a>, \u201cWe will be revoking the visas and\/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.\u201d In another clear threat, the Trump administration moved to\u00a0cancel<\/a>\u00a0$400 million in funding to Columbia University, citing the institution\u2019s failure to sufficiently crack down on \u201cantisemitic\u201d incidents on campus.<\/p>\n

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SHALOM, MAHMOUD.<\/p>\n

“ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of @Columbia<\/a> University. This is the first arrest of many to come.” \u2013President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com\/gfuPd0tskf<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 10, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n