From ICE detention to job termination, activists Mahmoud Khalil and Karen Attiah speak out in D.C.

Activist Mahmoud Khalil and writer Karen Attiah addressed a crowd of over 100 people at Busboys and Poets — a chain restaurant with the goal of inspiring social change — in Washington D.C. on Thursday night. The two spoke in conversation ranging from Khalil’s time in ICE detention and Attiah’s recent termination from the Washington Post. 

Khalil became a national figurehead of the movement for Palestinian liberation when he was arrested by ICE and detained for over 100 days at the LaSalle Detention Center in Louisiana last March. Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed Khalil’s activism harmed U.S. foreign policy. The detention, which sparked national outcry, was later ruled unconstitutional. 

Attiah was recently in headlines after the Washington Post fired the columnist for online posts she made after Charlie Kirk’s assassination. One of the posts quoted in Attiah’s termination letter states, “Part of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men who espouse hatred and violence.”

Attiah says she was the last remaining Black full-time opinion columnist at the Post. 

Khalil spoke about his extensive detainment, including recent efforts by the Trump administration to deport him to Algeria or Syria. 

“I think the most difficult thing is the dehumanization that happens there, and you see it in the eyes of those around you who can’t understand why they have been criminalized,” said Khalil.

Both Khalil and Attiah were at Columbia University during the high-profile pro-Palestine student movement in the spring of 2024. 

“Speaking as someone who, my dream was also to go to Columbia, to teach at Columbia … it literally brands itself as the activist Ivy,” said Attiah. “We are using these figures as activism, as branding, as marketing, but not as inherent values.”

Cofounder of CODEPINK, a feminist grassroots anti-war organization, Medea Benjamin attended the event and emphasized its importance. 

“I wanted to show my solidarity with both of them for the unjust way they are being treated — Khalil by the broken immigration system and repressive ICE agents, and Attiah by a major media company that caved,” Benjamin told Al-Hikmah. “We have to stand up for each other.” 

Both Khalil and Attiah emphasized the importance of continuing to fight, even in the face of overwhelming resistance. 

Khalil pointed to the courage of Columbia University’s student protesters as one constant source of hope. 

“Each one of them felt the responsibility to speak up, felt the responsibility to stand up for Palestine, for human rights, for justice. Despite all the risks that Columbia tried to reflect upon them,” Khalil said. “As individuals, we have so much power that these institutions are trying to strip from us.” 

Attiah reflected on the need for solidarity, even when it comes with risks. 

“If you’re not even the loud one, if you’re not even the one who’s saying that, you’re even trying to work with the ones who oppress you, you’re not safe either.”

_{Image credits: Cover photo by Bex Heimbrock/Al-Hikmah Staff.}