'The conditions on campus were becoming more and more hostile, and students were fearing for their safety,' Columbia graduate Bhavana Bellamkonda tells Anadolu Attorney Brittany Finley alleges Columbia used its Office of Institutional Equity proceedings to target Palestinian students In October 2023, shortly after Israel's war on Gaza began, a truck began circling Columbia University's campus.

It displayed the names and photographs of pro-Palestinian students and branded them the university's "leading anti-Semites." For Bhavana Bellamkonda, one of the students featured on the truck, it marked a moment when hostility toward pro-Palestinian advocacy became personal – and frightening.

"The conditions on campus were becoming more and more hostile, and students were fearing for their safety," Bellamkonda, who has since graduated from Columbia, told Anadolu.

Now, Bellamkonda is among a group of current and former students who, along with Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil and Columbia's Palestine Working Group (PWG), are suing the university over allegations of years of anti-Palestinian discrimination, indifference to harassment and retaliation.

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court this month, accuses Columbia of violating federal civil rights law by failing to protect students from threats, doxxing and other harassment over their Arab or Muslim ancestry or advocacy for Palestinian rights.

The case also brings renewed attention to Khalil, who was detained by US immigration authorities in March 2025 and held for 104 days in Louisiana, about 1,300 miles (2,092 kilometers) from his family. He missed the birth of his first child while in detention. Khalil, a US lawful permanent resident, was released in June 2025 but remains locked in a legal battle with the Trump administration over efforts to deport him.

According to the plaintiffs, however, the hostility they experienced at Columbia began long before Khalil's detention.

Bellamkonda described incidents of bullying and harassment, including Muslim students having their hijabs pulled off and being called "terrorists." "I myself was called a terrorist in one of my classes by an Israeli student who's actually the research assistant for the Dean of SIPA," she said, referring to Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs.

Bellamkonda described incidents of bullying and harassment, including Muslim students having their hijabs pulled off and being called "terrorists." "I myself was called a terrorist in one of my classes by an Israeli student who's actually the research assistant for the Dean of SIPA," she said, referring to Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs.

She argues that Columbia's failure to address such incidents helped create an environment in which pro-Palestinian students became increasingly vulnerable, and says the university's handling of the "coordinated harassment" helped pave the way for Khalil to be targeted by immigration authorities. ‘They traded us away’ The lawsuit alleges that Columbia knew pro-Palestinian students were facing persistent threats, doxxing and harassment but failed to adequately protect them.

"Columbia laid the groundwork for my targeting by the Trump administration through its deliberate indifference and discrimination against Palestinian students," Khalil said in a statement related to the lawsuit.

"For over two years, we pleaded with Columbia, and Columbia did not care," he said. "They traded us away. We are suing because no one should go through the hell Columbia put us through." Bellamkonda said some of the information displayed on the truck naming students and calling them anti-Semites had been pulled from CampusGroups, a university platform requiring a. After a similar truck appeared at Harvard earlier that month, she said students asked School of International and Public Affairs Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo for protection and for information that could facilitate doxxing to be removed from university systems.

"Ultimately, we didn't receive support from Columbia. Instead, it felt like the dean … got frustrated with us for asking for this support," she said. “Advocacy for Palestinian rights or any human rights shouldn't make someone disposable.” A Columbia spokesperson declined to comment on the pending litigation but told Anadolu the university is committed to a campus where all students feel "welcome, supported, and safe" and are protected from discrimination and harassment.

"Ultimately, we didn't receive support from Columbia. Instead, it felt like the dean … got frustrated with us for asking for this support," she said. “Advocacy for Palestinian rights or any human rights shouldn't make someone disposable.” A Columbia spokesperson declined to comment on the pending litigation but told Anadolu the university is committed to a campus where all students feel "welcome, supported, and safe" and are protected from discrimination and harassment.

The spokesperson also defended Yarhi-Milo, saying she had supported students of all backgrounds, including Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students, and was committed to maintaining a campus "free of discrimination and harassment." Disillusioned by treatment of Muslims Mohammad Ibrahim Zubairi, a Pakistani graduate of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, told Anadolu that his advocacy for pro-Palestinian students and the backlash he faced affected his academic and professional plans. He said tensions escalated after he encouraged US citizen students to exercise their right to protest on behalf of noncitizens, including Khalil, who was in ICE detention at the time.

"I was asking others to protest in this incident. I was asking US citizens to use their voice," he said. "Then someone started accusing me of being aggressive and inciting violence." "Instead of just saying, ‘this is your own constitutional right,’ they told me that I wasn't a resident of the country and that I should have checked my violence at the door," he added.

Zubairi, who received a full scholarship for his master's degree, said the turmoil also disrupted his professional plans, with much of the time he would have spent looking for work instead devoted to advocating for his detained friend.

"I was not really expecting the experience to be as hostile as it was," he said. He said Columbia was the first place where he experienced what he viewed as institutional pressure over his identity and political advocacy.

Zubairi said speaking out against what he called "all this unjustifiable violence" was treated as incompatible with being "a good Muslim man." "As if you're going to be a Muslim on campus, you just can't be criticizing the West," he said.

Coming from Pakistan, Zubairi said he was surprised by the censorship and pressure he encountered in the US, where "they talk about freedom of speech, civil liberties," and where "the civil rights struggle was born." He eventually returned to Pakistan.

"I was just kind of disillusioned with the US in general," he said. He said he was uncertain whether, after publicly associating himself with pro-Palestinian activism, he would be allowed to return to the US under the current administration.

'Columbia itself went after these students' Brittany Finley, an attorney representing Khalil and the other plaintiffs, said the university not only failed to protect pro-Palestinian students but also subjected them to disciplinary action.

Finley began representing students in those proceedings after Columbia established its Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) in August 2024 as a centralized office to handle reports of discrimination and discriminatory harassment. She alleges that the office began targeting pro-Palestinian students, including Khalil, almost immediately. Even before Khalil’s detention, she said, "I was witnessing the fear that these students had." "Columbia itself, as an institution, went after students through the OIE proceedings," Finley said.

"From its inception, this organization existed to target Palestinian students," she alleged, saying the proceedings were "intended to intimidate these students and try to stifle their advocacy efforts." Finley said Khalil was repeatedly subjected to OIE proceedings that she viewed as baseless.

"They targeted him multiple times, all in meritless ways of trying to frame him as a person who he is not," she said.

She said the pressure on pro-Palestinian students intensified after Oct. 7, 2023, and eventually extended to the Palestine Working Group, which remains indefinitely suspended. Finley said Khalil repeatedly warned Columbia that he was being harassed and "horribly doxxed by Columbia affiliates" in the days leading up to his ICE detention.

In early March 2025, he filed a report with the Office of Institutional Equity and emailed Columbia’s president "I haven't been able to sleep, fearing that ICE or a dangerous individual might come to my home," Khalil wrote. "I urgently need legal support, and I urge you to intervene."

In the email and report, Khalil said Columbia affiliates had publicly accused him of being a "national security threat," questioned his immigration status, tagged Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an accusatory post and exposed him to threats "both online and within Columbia-affiliated spaces." He was detained the following day.

The plaintiffs are seeking damages, the reinstatement of the Palestine Working Group and restored campus access for Khalil, according to the lawsuit.

Khalil remains barred from Columbia's main campus despite graduating while in detention, while the Trump administration continues its efforts to deport him.

"His cases haven't been resolved and Columbia hasn't offered any sort of support," Finley said. "They've only reached out to him to ask him to move off of campus property after he was released from detention."