American Jewish protest at Trump Tower over arrest of Palestinian Khalil

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators Jewish Voice for Peace took over US President Donald Trump's hotel in New York on Thursday in protest of activist Mahmoud Khalil's arrest, leading to 98 arrests. Khalil, a Palestinian student at Columbia University, was detained by ICE officers on Saturday without a warrant, sparking large-scale student protests.

Hundreds of Jewish demonstrators overran New York's Trump Tower on Thursday in support of Palestinians as well as detained Palestinian student campaigner Mahmoud Khalil.

Wearing matching red T-shirts emblazoned with "Jews say stop arming Israel," the group protested for over an hour inside the Manhattan skyscraper, where President Donald Trump's family business is headquartered and he has a personal residence.

The building was also where Trump memorably rode down a golden escalator in 2015 to announce his first run for president.

Police said they arrested 98 people, marching under the banner of the group called Jewish Voice for Peace, for crimes including trespassing.

The group, which apparently caught security and police off guard, chanted "fight Nazis, not students," a reference to Trump's crackdown on foreign students involved in pro-Palestinian protests.

Police loaded detained protesters on buses, including a repurposed city bus, in front of the Gucci store at the foot of the tower as a helicopter and drone flew overhead.

Across town at Columbia University, where Khalil had been a student, administrators announced they had issued "multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions" of students who had occupied a campus building last year during demonstrations against Israel's war in Gaza.

The short statement did not provide further details, such as who had been sanctioned, but comes less than a week after the Trump administration cut $400 million in federal funding for the university, accusing it of not sufficiently addressing anti-Semitism.

It also comes days after Khalil, a recent graduate and one of the protest leaders, was detained by immigration authorities.

The Trump administration has moved to revoke Khalil's green card, accusing him of leading "activities aligned with Hamas", the militant group whose October 7, 2023 attack triggered the war.

His arrest has triggered outrage from critics of the Trump administration as well as free speech advocates, including some on the political right, who say such a move has a chilling effect on freedom of expression.