On Sunday, October 4, Book Passage in Corte Madera is scheduled to host Mahmoud Khalil. We ask the store to withdraw from the event.

His role at Columbia: During the 2024 protests at Columbia University, Mr. Khalil served as a spokesperson and negotiator for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the coalition behind the campus encampment. He became one of the most visible leaders of the campus protest movement nationwide.

What Jewish students lived through: Columbia's own Task Force on Antisemitism gathered accounts from nearly 500 students. Jewish students described being stalked, spat on, harassed and excluded. In the university's survey, about two-thirds of Jewish students said they did not feel accepted because of their religious identity, and two-thirds said the encampment disrupted their daily routine. In May 2025, federal civil rights offices found that Columbia violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by acting with deliberate indifference to the harassment of Jewish students.

What Mr. Khalil has said: He has described complaints of antisemitism at Columbia as "manufactured hysteria." Asked repeatedly on CNN whether he condemns Hamas, he declined and called the question "disingenuous and absurd." He told the New York Times' Ezra Klein, about October 7, "we couldn't avoid such a moment." He told the Forward he would neither rule out nor confirm that Hamas targeted civilians that day, although independent investigations have found that it did.

Mr. Khalil denies antisemitism and says he condemns the killing of all civilians. We do not claim he personally harassed any student. Our objection is that the most prominent voice of that movement has dismissed what Jewish students went through and equivocated about the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. That causes real pain in our community, and a beloved local bookstore should not lend its stage to it.

We ask everyone who signs to keep all contact with the store and its staff respectful and peaceful.

 

UPDATE: The following email was sent on Thursday, Oct 1 ,to Book Passage, with no response as of Saturday, Oct 3:

Dear Elaine and Bill Petrocelli,

I'm writing as a Marin resident and Book Passage customer about the Mahmoud Khalil event scheduled for this Sunday, October 4, at the Corte Madera store. Book Passage has been a gift to this community for decades, and I write with respect for that.

In February 2024, Bill told J. The Jewish News of Northern California that the store cancelled Brett Gelman's appearance because of "intemperate and ill-advised remarks that he made against some other ethnic and social groups." Mr. Gelman's book had nothing to do with Israel. As I understood it, the decision turned on the author's public statements and the store's judgment that they were hurtful to members of the community.

I'd ask you to weigh Mr. Khalil's public statements by the same measure:

On CNN in July 2025, asked several times whether he condemns Hamas, he declined and called the question "disingenuous and absurd."
Speaking with Ezra Klein of the New York Times in August 2025, he said of October 7, "we couldn't avoid such a moment."
At SXSW in March 2026, he said "it's very racist to ask a Palestinian" to condemn Hamas.
In a profile in the Forward this year, he said, "I wouldn't rule out that Hamas targeted civilians, but I wouldn't confirm it either."
I recognize that Mr. Khalil has also said he condemns the killing of all civilians, and that many people see his detention as a serious injustice. I'm not asking you to take a side on that. But for many Jewish families here, hearing doubt cast on whether the victims of October 7 were deliberately targeted is deeply painful, at least as much as whatever led the store to act in 2024.

I'm asking that you apply the standard you set then and withdraw the store from hosting this event. If you decide to go ahead, I'd ask you to explain publicly how the two decisions fit together, so the community can understand the principle.

Thank you for considering this, and for all Book Passage does.