Badar Khan Suri wanted to have a dreamy wedding in Gaza. Guests had arrived and the venue was ready. But fate had other plans. The violent situation in Egypt did not allow Mr Suri’s family to cross over into Gaza.
They finally married in Delhi on January 1, 2014.
For Mr Suri, an Indian, and his wife Mapheze Saleh, an American citizen with Palestinian roots, it was the beginning of a new chapter in their lives. It was an “Indo-Palestinian” love story, because borders can’t limit love.
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Moving to India was a big leap for Mapheze Saleh. The Gazan knew India as the land of Shah Rukh Khan, and as she travelled to Delhi, her friends asked her to convey their greetings to SRK and even Amitabh Bachchan, faces of Indian cinema that transcended borders.
Life changed for the couple when they moved to the US after spending years in India. The first big change came in 2023 with the Middle East conflict. The next was the return of Donald Trump early this year, which marked a stark shift in the US policy on Palestine.
Ms Saleh would never have anticipated that her Palestinian roots would pose bigger challenges in the US. US academics now face deportation if they demonstrate in support of the Hamas. Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian who studied at Columbia University, was arrested for staging protests.
Trouble Begins For Suri
Trouble for Mr Suri began on March 17 night when he was arrested outside his Virginia home by masked agents of the Homeland Security Department. He was told his visa had been revoked and that he would be put on deportation trial under the same law used against Khalil, per a lawsuit filed by his lawyer seeking his release.
The post-doctoral fellow at Georgetown University insisted he never had a criminal record, but US authorities accused him of spreading “Hamas propaganda” and being in close contact with a “suspected terrorist”.
“Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media. Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas,” said Tricia McLaughlin, an Assistant Secretary Department, Homeland Security.
In his petition for release, his lawyer Hassan Ahmad denounced his arrest as being “targeted, retaliatory detention”, aimed at silencing those expressing support for the rights of Palestinians. Mr Ahmad argued Mr Suri was being targeted due to his wife’s Palestinian roots. Due to her Palestinian heritage, the government suspects that the couple opposed US foreign policy for Israel, according to him.
What Georgetown Said
Mr Suri was a faculty at Georgetown University in Washington, where he has been teaching “Majoritarianism and Minority Rights in South Asia”. He had obtained a US visa to continue his “doctoral research on peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan”, said a university spokesperson.
“We are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention. We support our community members’ rights to free and open inquiry, deliberation, and debate, even if the underlying ideas may be difficult, controversial, or objectionable. We expect the legal system to adjudicate this case fairly,” said a university statement.
The Alleged Hamas Link
Ms Saleh’s father, Ahmed Yourself, had served as a “senior political adviser to Hamas”. He had written at least two op-ed pieces (from 2009 and 2014) for The Guardian, in which he spoke about the Hamas.
In another piece for Middle East Eye in 2017, he highlighted an “active unwillingness” of the global community to acknowledge Hamas’s efforts to clarify their position towards Israel and the conflict.
The US has not openly linked Ms Saleh or her father to Mr Suri’s arrest, but a senior US official reacted to a post about the Hamas links. On X, Ms McLaughlin criticised Politico for describing Mr Yousef’s alleged link to Hamas as a “wrinkle” and said the Secretary of State was determined to determine Mr Suri.
Mr Yousef, a former adviser to the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, told the New York Times that his son-in-law was not involved in any political activism, let alone Hamas. Speaking to another outlet, he said been trying to contact Mr Suri but couldn’t.
In an interview cited in the Politico report, he branded Mr Suri’s detention an “abduction by the government”, similar to the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil. “We are trying to speak with him. That hasn’t happened yet. This is just another example of our government abducting people the same way they abducted Khalil,” said Mr Yousef.
Wife Appeals For Safe Return
Ms Saleh was born in Missouri and had moved to Gaza when she was five years old. In an emergency motion filing with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a civil rights organisation, she has made an appeal for her husband’s safe return.
The couple moved to the US with their children in 2022-23 due to its reputation for “free speech and religious freedom”, DC News Now, a local outlet cited Ms Saleh as saying. Mr Suri had already landed a fellowship at Georgetown, allowing him to take the leap.
With the outbreak of the Middle Conflict in October 2023, Ms Saleh turned active on social media. She felt she was obliged to speak out due to her journalism background and her Palestinian heritage. She posted content daily about the plight of Gazans.
In February, she first learnt that she was being targeted over her father’s role in the Gaza government, exacerbated by her social media posts. She said the articles about her and her family made her feel unsafe, especially “false claims” that the couple had links to Hamas. Her husband was arrested the following month.
She also provided a personal account narrating the events surrounding her husband’s arrest. Around 9:20 pm (local time) on March 17, she got a call from her husband. He told her that he was being arrested outside their department.
Ms Saleh said she came downstairs to find three uniformed agents handcuffing her husband. They shoved him into a black SUV and left without providing a reason for his arrest. Next day, he informed her he was in Lousiana, about 1,600 km from Virginia.
She said she has been under extreme stress since her husband’s arrest and feels “completely unsafe”. “I can’t stop looking at the door, terrified that someone else will come and take me and the children as well,” she said.
While authorities asserted they would deport Mr Suri, a local court this morning blocked his immediate removal.
Mr Suri is among the latest academics to face Trump’s fury over supporting Palestine, whom the President calls “terrorist sympathizers”.
Trump, who seeks to be a global peacemaker, has warned Hamas to return the Israeli hostages still held captive in Gaza. He has also backed the latest assault by Israel that followed the end of weeks-long ceasefire.
But for pro-Palestine campus protests, his warning was pointed and direct. Earlier this month, the US President had threatened to cut university funding for staging “illegal” protests. Those participating may also be charged and deported, he had warned.