
In a letter marking one month since his detention by immigration authorities, Noor Abdalla vowed to continue to fight for the release of her husband, Mahmoud Khalil, and for the right to speak up on behalf of Palestinian rights.
“We will not be silenced,” she said. “We will persist, with even greater resolve, and we will pass that strength on to our children and our children’s children – until Palestine is free.”
Khalil, the recent Columbia graduate and Palestinian activist, was detained on 8 March and remains in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention in Louisiana. The Trump administration is seeking to deport him.
“Exactly a month ago, you were taken from me,” Abdalla, who is nine months pregnant with their first child, wrote in the letter addressed to her husband and published exclusively in the Guardian. “As the days draw us closer to the arrival of our child, I am haunted by the uncertainty that looms over me – the possibility that you might not be there for this monumental moment.”