Hezekiah Watkins was 13 when he was arrested in 1961 for entering a white-only Greyhound bus station in Jackson, sent to state prison and housed on death row. 

Watkins said Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest reminded him of his own experience. 

Khalil, a Palestinian activist who was the lead negotiator between students and the Columbia University administration during protests last spring regarding the ongoing war in Gaza for divestment in companies with ties to Israel, was arrested by Department of Homeland Security officials last month. The conflict in Gaza reignited on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants in a surprise attack killed 1,195 Israelis and foreign nationals and kidnapped 215, led to Israeli military response that has decimated Gaza and left more than 50,000 dead.

A green card-holding permanent resident of the United States, Khalil was moved to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Louisiana soon after. On Wednesday, a New York court gave the Trump administration a 24-hour deadline to justify his deportation. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has argued that while Khalil had not committed any crime, his presence in the United States would “undermine U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States.” Rubio’s determination was the only justification provided by the Trump administration for Khalil’s deportation.

On Friday, a Louisiana judge ruled that Khalil could be deported. 

“No due process. And the student that you’re speaking of, there’s no due process there…that’s not right. That’s not the way America is built,” Watkins said. The summer he was arrested, no less than 327 others were arrested for “breach of peace” and sent to Parchman for being in segregated waiting areas of bus stations, just like him.  

Watkins wasn’t the only Mississippian for whom Khalil’s arrest and the escalating crackdown on immigrants, especially those who have been vocal about Palestine, felt close to home. 

Last month, Terron Weaver, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, along with more than a dozen Southerners gathered in front of the ICE detention center in Jena, Louisiana, where Khalil was being held. 

Since then, a Turkish Fulbright scholar, Rumeysa Ozturk, a graduate student at Tufts University, has also been held in the same detention center. Like Khalil, she was arrested near her home without notice. In March last year, Ozturk co-wrote an op-ed in Tufts’ student newspaper criticizing the school’s response to a student government group’s call for the university to divest from companies with ties to Israel.

Khalil was brought to Louisiana from New Jersey because the authorities “feel there’s no movement here,” Weaver said, “But they’re incorrect.”

Weaver and others are working to actively build a progressive movement in the South to change the overwhelming perception that it is “very bigoted, very racist.” 

“It really started with immigrants…and now it’s being escalated to people who spoke out against the genocide. And it’s not going to stop there. The answer has to be with a mass people’s movement that is fighting back against everything that the Trump administration is trying to do,” he said.  

“What history shows repeatedly is that when the government continues to launch attacks on the working class,” he said, “we do fight back. We do not shrink away in fear.”

“Whether you’re a politician or just a regular layman, if something goes wrong, one needs to share their thoughts,” said Watkins. “Especially if you have a voice – your voice sometimes speaks louder and goes further than the next person.”

Palestinian Christians visit Mississippi

Last month, a delegation of Palestinian Christians visited the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum as part of a tour organized by Washington D.C.-based group Telos. Members of the delegation reflected on the similarities between the struggle for civil rights in the South and the struggle for a free Palestine, and also the significance of the timing of their visit – just four days after Khalil’s arrest. 

“Christians in North America and in the West in general have been somehow uncritically supporting a settler colonial regime which oppresses us. I’m grateful that there is an awakening among Christian leaders in the U.S. to learn more about our context as Palestinian Christians and as Palestinians in general,” said one member of the delegation. However, he said, it was “devastating” to see uncritical support for Israel from many Christian faith leaders. 

Another member of the Palestinian delegation, who asked to not be named, fearing retaliation, said their visit to Jackson gave her important reminders about the nature of struggles for freedom and equality. 

“It is interesting to visit Trump’s America and do this trip during this time,” she said. “To think that we are in this museum that shows the struggle, and celebrates the achievements, and the various steps of progress…but also to realize that it can always be pushed back; you can always regress,” she said. “We have to keep fighting for those small steps of progress and not just assume they’re always going to be there.” 

Afraid but undeterred 

A Palestinian American Mississippian who asked to remain anonymous, fearing retaliation, said the current crackdown on the movement for free Palestine reminded him of dictatorships around the world forcing citizens to adhere to a certain ideology. “If you are against the government, you can be imprisoned, you can be deported, and you can be harassed if you speak frankly…I really fear for where the United States is going.”

As Mississippi’s Legislature created its first “Israel caucus,” he said the support in the state for Israel confused him. “Many Mississippians were attracted to Trump’s message because he said, America first – we’re not going to be spending all these unnecessary wars… Yet he just sent $4 billion to Israel to continue this and the U.S. government started bombing Yemen. So where is this promise to the Mississippians and the American people?”

State Sens. Jeremy England, R-Vancleave, and Juan Barnett, D-Heidelburg, co-chair the caucus.

“It’s basically just a friendly caucus with Israel being our our longest standing and strongest ally in the Middle East, and a good trade partner for the state of Mississippi. This is really just to foster and and build that bond between the state of Mississippi and the nation of Israel,” England said. “I really hate what’s going on over there. I think that’s a very unfortunate situation, but it’s also something that’s been going on for a very long time.”

Late last month, Mississippians held demonstrations at three separate locations across the state to show their support for Palestine and demand an arms embargo. Nearly two dozen participated in the protest in Jackson. The reaction from passers-by was mostly positive, a protestor said. 

But a Muslim Mississippian, who also asked not to be named, said she feels like the tension is rising. And while fear can cause the community to band together, she said, it can also force people to look out only for themselves and their own. “People’s behavior changes when they’re fearful,” she said. “And it can oftentimes cause division.”

Update 4/11/24: This story has been updated to include comments from Sen. Jeremy England with the Israel caucus.

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