FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

14 March 2025

(NEW YORK) – Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) and TransCultural Exchange (TCE) strongly condemn Betar US’s targeting of award-winning Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha on social media, including its demand for his deportation. Since January 28, the group has posted on its official X account several times, with a recent post on March 10 urging authorities to deport him. Betar US claims credit for the Trump Administration’s detention and threatened deportation of recently graduated Palestinian Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil over the weekend. This latest threat to Mosab Abu Toha must be considered a grave and present danger. ARC and TCE call on New York State authorities to investigate the targeting, intimidation and threats made by Betar US. 

“Mosab is an incredible talent, recognized worldwide, and a voice of his people. He must be  protected from such boldfaced, politically-motivated attacks,” said Julie Trébault, Executive Director of ARC. “Freedom of expression and protest are cornerstones of American democracy and are enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Targeting Palestinian artists, activists, and academics on university campuses is a blatant departure from the core values of this nation. ARC strongly urges the state authorities to guarantee the necessary protections for Mosab Abu Toha, and other Palestinian voices who are attacked for exercising their right to free expression.”

“We are always disheartened to hear that anyone, legally working and residing in the U.S., would be singled out for persecution by virtue of having been born in a particular place, which has informed their writing and, in doing so, helped provide the world with moving eyewitness testaments of the ongoing and continuously evolving situation in their homeland,” said the Executive Director of TransCultural Exchange, Mary Sherman, speaking on behalf of herself and her organization. “All such persons should be protected, and, in particular, given the current threats to Mosab Abu Toha, we join Julie Trébault and the Artists at Risk Connection in urging that all efforts be made to stop the false accusations being lobbied against Mosab. In addition, we request that every effort be made to ensure that he is safely protected from further persecution or worse.”

Mosab Abu Toha is the award-winning author of Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear and the founder of the Edward Said Library in Gaza, which was destroyed earlier this year by the Israeli army during its assault on Gaza after October 7, 2023. In November 2023, Abu Toha was detained and beaten by Israeli soldiers as he was moving his family to a safer location in southern Gaza. He was released after a high-profile campaign, including that of his editor, David Remnick, at New Yorker magazine. Abu Toha subsequently left Gaza and took up a teaching opportunity at Syracuse University in New York, where he had previously earned a Master’s degree. Abu Toha recently spoke at the TransCultural Exchange’s 2025 International Conference on Opportunities in the Arts during the ARC-organized keynote session, “Art on the Frontlines: Navigating Risk and Fostering Resilience.”

 Betar US is a self-described “Zionist activist” group that openly promotes violence. It identifies as the “North American arm of the international movement of Ze’ev Jabotinsky,” a founder of right-wing Jewish paramilitary groups prior to 1948, and is registered in White Plains, New York. The organization has responded to the new administration’s announcement of investigations into pro-Palestinian students by sending a list of targets to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. The group was started in 2024, with reports quickly emerging that linked Betar US to organized violence and threats targeting anti-war protests and the Palestinian-American community.

 The serious nature of Betar US’s threat was made clear following the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian Columbia University student and green card holder who was part of the anti-war protests at the campus in 2024, and who was selected to be the student liaison with the university administration. On March 8, Khalil was detained at his home by federal agents and threatened with immediate deportation; a judge has since blocked the deportation pending a hearing. A day prior to his detention, Khalil had contacted the Columbia University interim president asking for protection support, noting that he was under constant harassment and threats, including doxxing. He specifically cited Betar US, which had targeted him via a post on X,