The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Khalil's lawyers from Beldock Levine & Hoffman announced the lawsuit, alleging that these groups “sought to terrorize and make an example of” him and other non-citizen Palestinian rights activists "in an effort to intimidate and weaken the growing movement for Palestinian solidarity”.
The lawsuit was brought under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, according to CCR.
The lawsuit alleges that his targeting was driven by anti-Palestinian animus and that the “private anti-Palestinian groups” coordinated with administration officials to persecute Khalil and other Palestinian rights advocates.
“The goal was never to win an argument. The goal was always to manufacture fear, to convince people that the cost of speaking out would be too high. When those campaigns were not enough, they brought in the power of the state,” Khalil said of the groups.