Establish a Protective Presence

From the West Bank to the Upper West Side of New York

One of the tactics used by activists to defend Palestinian villages on the West Bank from ethnic cleansing (house demolition and population expulsion) is establishment of a “protective presence” by outsiders to stand between the occupation forces and the people resisting them. Several groups established a protective presence around Musafer Yatta, the Palestinian village whose resistance to occupation was portrayed in the Oscar-winning film, No Other Land.

I am posting this to call for a movement of protective presence to defend university students and other pro-Palestine protestors slated for illegal expulsion from the United States by the Trump administration. It is too late to prevent the detention of Khalil Mahmoud, about whose case I wrote on Monday, but it is not too late for mass action to stop his deportation and to prevent the detention of others.

Khalil Mahmoud speaks to the press, June 1, 2024. Others in this picture may also be at risk. Photograph: Jeenah Moon/Reuters (via the Guardian)

While some potential targets may be concerned about calling attention to themselves, some, like Khalil Mahmoud, have already become targets of online doxing campaigns. In a statement released the night of Tuesday March 11, Mahmoud Khalil’s wife (who has chosen to remain anonymous to protect herself from harassment) reported:

Six days ago, an intense and targeted doxing campaign against Mahmoud began. Anti-Palestinian organizations were spreading false claims about my husband that were simply not based in reality. They were making threats against Mahmoud and he was so concerned about his safety that he emailed Columbia University on March 7.

Columbia University did not answer Mahmoud’s message, and he did not know of anyone else to turn to. ICE agents arrested him on March 8, as he and his wife were returning from an Iftar dinner.

I propose that some organization or a coalition of organizations establish a coordination center to identify pro-Palestinian protesters targeted online and offer them protection. The coordination center would collect the names of people who would volunteer to monitor and protect any such potential targets and potentially resist and help them escape detention. It would establish rosters to assure an around the clock presence in solidarity with potentially targeted people.

There are many practical problems — establishing a protective presence in an environment like the Upper West Side of New York is different from doing so in a rural environment like the West Bank. I don’t have a detailed plan, and I don’t have the means to do anything other than broadcast this idea in the hope that others will seize on it, develop it, and implement it. I am ready to provide whatever support I can.

Please circulate this as widely as possible. The comments section is open.