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Sunday in New York, Dr. Noor Abdalla accepted a diploma on behalf of her husband, Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, at an alternative graduation ceremony held by the People’s University for Palestine. Abdalla gave birth to the couple’s first child Deen last month, while Khalil remained imprisoned at a Louisiana ICE detention center over a thousand miles away after he was abducted by ICE from university housing in March. ICE denied Khalil’s request to be present at the birth. “You showed up,” Abdalla said, reading a statement from Khalil addressed to attendees of the crowd. “You reminded me that while institutions may abandon us, the people never will.”
Transcript
AMY GOODMAN: As we wrap up this segment, we’re going to turn to the final comments of Dr. Noor Abdalla. She spoke on Sunday night at the People’s Graduation for Columbia University. It was a gathering of hundreds of people allied with the students who were involved with protesting at Columbia University over the last year. Dr. Noor Abdalla, who is a dentist here in New York, gave birth to the couple’s first child Deen last month. She held her child, wearing a graduation cap that had a Palestinian flag on it, as she accepted a diploma on her husband Mahmoud Khalil’s behalf. She addressed the crowd.
DR. NOOR ABDALLA: I’d like to end by reading a statement from Mahmoud that he wanted me to share with you all. “Thank you for holding me in your hearts today. It has been two months since I was taken from my family and from you, detained simply for speaking the truth about Palestine. Columbia University, the place where we sought knowledge, justice and truth, chose silence instead of solidarity. It failed me, but you didn’t. You showed up. You reminded me that while institutions may abandon us, the people never will. Today, I want to say congratulations. You’ve made it through, perhaps not with degrees, but with your voices, your integrity and your compassion intact. I’m endlessly proud to be among you, and I carry your love with me every day. Please keep carrying mine.” And thank you all.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Dr. Noor Abdalla. At the end of the event, graduates lined up — they’re actually graduating this week from various schools at Columbia University — to receive their diplomas. And projected on the back of the stage, the church on the Upper West Side, was a diploma for Mahmoud Khalil, also for Dr. Noor Abdalla and for their baby, who Mahmoud Khalil has never seen, for Deen Abdalla.
When we come back, today would have been the 100th birthday of civil rights icon Malcolm X. We speak with his daughter, Dr. Ilyasah Shabazz, about his legacy and with civil rights attorney Ben Crump about the family’s lawsuit to release all files about Malcolm X’s assassination. Back in 30 seconds.
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AMY GOODMAN: “Black Spartacus Heart Attack Machine” by Tom Morello in our Democracy Now! studio back in 2011.
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