MAGA cares deeply about Jewish students—just like it cares about women’s sports

Just as MAGA's concern for women’s sports is a smokescreen for transphobia, their attempt to fight antisemitism by deporting Palestinian activists is a tool for controlling dissent.

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If you grew up in my native Egypt, or anywhere else under the scourge of dictators, you know the feeling of living on borrowed time—the constant awareness that your freedom could be stolen in an instant. All it takes is the stroke of a pen and a gang of thugs on the state’s payroll, barging into your home to arrest you on trumped-up charges. It is a fate that befalls politicians, activists, journalists, and ordinary civilians alike—again and again, without warning.

Then, after years of living in the West, you begin to exhale. You trust in due process, find comfort in democratic values, and believe you are finally safe. You protest freely, chant without fear, and exercise your rights, as promised by the constitution. Then, one day, ICE comes knocking. They snatch you from your home and throw you behind bars more than a thousand miles away. And in that moment, you realize—you never really left Egypt at all.

This is what happened to Mahmoud Khalil on the evening of Saturday, March 8. While returning home with his eight-month pregnant wife, ICE agents descended on the couple and demanded that Khalil, a Palestinian activist and resident of the US who recently graduated from Columbia University, surrender himself for arrest.

According to reports, the lead agent told Khalil’s lawyer during the arrest that his client’s student visa had been revoked. But Khalil wasn’t on a student visa—he had a green card. Nevertheless, the ICE agent next claimed that Khalil’s green card had been revoked, which, by US law, cannot be done without a lot of due process. The agent then hung up on the lawyer and proceeded to cart Khalil away. The Palestinian activist is now in a detention facility in Louisiana, more than 1400 miles away from where he was arrested.

Khalil was an active member of Columbia University’s protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, a war that has been characterized as ethnic cleansing and a genocide by multiple human rights organizations. Khalil became the target of right-wing organizations supporting Israel that were sending lists of students to the Trump administration who they demanded by deported from the US because of their political views. This took on new life following Trump’s inauguration, as the president issued two executive orders called for deporting “perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment.”

Trump later withdrew approximately $400m of federal funding over an unproven allegation that Columbia was a hotbed of antisemitism. Khalil’s arrest marked the second attack on the university.

The White House has since doubled down on Khalil’s unlawful arrest, falsely accusing him of allegiance to Hamas, while lying about his U.S. residency status. After his arrest, the official White House account on X issued a post that said: “Shalom, Mahmoud,” using a Hebrew word that can means both hello and goodbye.

While Khalil’s arrest is emblematic of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and dissent, it also underscores the hypocrisy of the right-wing outrage machine, which loves to position itself as the ultimate defender of marginalized groups—when it is politically convenient.

We’ve seen this playbook before: GOP lawmakers claim to champion women’s sports in their crusade against trans athletes, despite spending decades rolling back women’s rights. Even Trump has positioned himself as a champion of women’s sports, despite at least 25 women accusing him of sexual misconduct since the 1970s.

Last month, Trump signed a “no men in women’s sports” executive order while surrounded by young schoolgirls, fulfilling a promise that was at the center of his 2024 campaign.

“From now on, women's sports will be only for women,” Trump said.

There are real threats facing women’s sports, such as sexual abuse scandals, pay disparities, and limited access in developing nations. However, the notion that trans athletes are among those threats is nothing more than a myth. Trans athletes make up an incredibly small percentage of competitors—less than 0.002% of NCAA athletes—and the vast majority do not dominate their sports or win championships. In Minnesota, where trans inclusion has been standard for over a decade, there’s been no seismic shift in women’s sports, just more girls getting the chance to play the sports they love.

Nevertheless, those same right-wing hypocrites are suddenly the loudest voices against antisemitism on college campuses, but only when it serves their broader agenda of silencing pro-Palestinian activism. Khalil’s arrest and attempted deportation is just the latest example of this hypocrisy in action.

Khalil’s case is part of a broader crackdown on campus activism, where pro-Palestinian speech is being conflated with antisemitism to justify censorship and state repression. On Tuesday, Speaker Mike Johnson defended the Trump admin’s decision to arrest Khalil, stating “if you are on a student visa, and you're in America, and you're an aspiring young terrorist who wants to prey upon your Jewish classmates, you're going home.”

Meanwhile, the same right-wing figures who claim to care about protecting Jewish students from discrimination have openly courted white nationalists and trafficked in anti-semitic conspiracy theories. Their selective outrage reveals what this is really about: silencing dissent, not combating hate. Nevertheless, only 14 congressional Democrats felt compelled enough to publicly support Khalil by signing a letter calling for his immediate release.

Yes, you read that correctly: only 14.

It is important to note that antisemitism is on the rise in the U.S., as well as around the world. However, this serious problem will not be solved by arresting and deporting U.S. residents and students who did little more than support their homeland’s right to self-determination, especially when the ruling party is littered with anti-semites. That is the behaviour of authoritarian regimes.

The GOP’s so-called concern for Jewish students mirrors its performative defense of female athletes. Just as their interest in women’s sports is a smokescreen for anti-trans legislation and controlling who gets to exist freely in US society, their newfound commitment to fighting antisemitism in college campuses is a tool for criminalizing Palestinian solidarity while setting precedents for future protest movements not aligned with Trump’s politics.

Some of you reading this may support Trump’s attempt to deport Khalil, or even his ban on trans women in sports. But these attacks on minorities, democracy and free speech should send a chill down your spine—because if you don’t stand up for the marginalized today, don’t be surprised when you’re next.

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