(NewsNation) — The families of hostages who were kidnapped by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attacks are suing detained Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil and several student groups, alleging they aided and abetted Hamas in acts of international terrorism.
Khalil, who was arrested earlier this month, is named in the lawsuit as one of the heads of the anti-Israel protests that took place at Columbia last year, which the families in the lawsuit claimed helped spread the terrorist group’s messaging.
“The lawsuit is to raise awareness for the ongoing crimes that have been happening since Oct. 7 and on Oct. 7,” said Iris Haggai, the daughter of Israeli-Americans who were killed in the attack. “We also need to hold the people who are promoting this accountable.”
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Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, Columbia-Barnard Jewish Voice for Peace and the Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition have also been named in the lawsuit.
Marc Goldfeder, the lawyer who filed the lawsuit with the families, charged that the people named in the lawsuit knew of the Oct. 7 attacks before they happened. Goldfeder also said any time Hamas made an attack, the student groups also started a protest.
Haggai also said the response to the attack and kidnapping of Israeli hostages were just protests she believes are in support of Hamas, which she called “horrible.”
“Imagine if they promoted peace and demanded the unconditional release of hostages,” Haggai said. “Imagine how many lives we would have saved from both sides.”
