JOHNSTONE April 25

The empire's war on free speech continues as a New Jersey judge rules that Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil may take to the federal courts to fight the Trump administration's efforts to deport him for criticizing the state of Israel. Khalil's wife, a US citizen, gave birth to their son last week without her husband by her side after the Department of Homeland Security denied the family's request to let him attend the birth.

Mahmoud Khalil has become the face of the western empire's frenetic attempts to silence all criticism of Israel throughout the western world. I have said it before and I will say it here again: there is no greater threat to free speech in our society today than Israel and its western backers.