Mahmoud Khalil sues Trump officials and pro-Israel groups over ‘conspiracy’ to target him

Mahmoud Khalil speaks at a news conference in New York on Tuesday. Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP View image in fullscreen Mahmoud Khalil speaks at a news conference in New York on Tuesday. Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP Mahmoud Khalil sues Trump officials and pro-Israel groups over ‘conspiracy’ to target him Lawsuit alleges administration coordinated with online surveillance groups to ‘criminalize solidarity with Palestine’ Mahmoud Khalil filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Trump administration officials and several pro-Israel groups, accusing them of conspiring to target him and others as punishment for their support of Palestinian rights. The former Columbia University graduate student became the face of the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestine speech after he was detained last year. A permanent US resident, Khalil is also fighting in court against the government’s effort to deport him. The lawsuit , filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of Khalil, alleges that the Trump administration coordinated with Betar and Canary Mission, two pro-Israel online surveillance groups, in selecting “targets of the conspiracy”. “This case is about far more than what was done to me. It’s about a coordinated, ongoing campaign to punish, silence, and intimidate anyone who dares to speak out for Palestinian liberation,” Khalil said at a press conference on Tuesday announcing the lawsuit. “It’s about exposing the network of organizations, political actors, and institutions that work together to criminalize solidarity with Palestine and to make an example of those who refuse to stay silent.” Betar US publicly claimed credit for Khalil’s arrest, and the Guardian reported last year that the group had said it had submitted “thousands of names” to the administration for similar treatment. More information about the government’s reliance on the groups emerged last year during a trial surrounding the government’s campaign against pro-Palestinian scholars. Khalil’s lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, names several top Trump officials, including White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, secretary of state Marco Rubio and former homeland security secretary Kristi Noem, as defendants, as well as the conservative thinktank the Heritage Foundation, Canary Mission and Betar. The suit alleges the Heritage Foundation and two of its leaders led the formulation of “Project Esther” , an effort the lawsuit claims “served as the blueprint” for what became a “public-private partnership” working to defeat the growing movement for Palestinian rights. The complaint alleges government officials worked “hand-in-hand” with the groups “to deprive the selected individuals of their fundamental rights and to broadcast the chilling message that Palestinians and their supporters would be subject to state repression solely because of their identities and constitutionally-protected political viewpoints”. Project Esther, it claims, “was a document that described