Badar Khan wanted to get a fictional wedding in Suri Gaza. The guests had arrived and the site was ready. But there were other plans of luck. The violent situation in Egypt did not allow Shri Suri’s family to cross into Gaza.
She finally married in Delhi on 1 January 2014.
For Mr. Suri, an Indian, and his wife Mafez Saleh, an American citizen with Palestinian roots, was the beginning of a new chapter in his life. It was an “Indo-Filistin” love story, as boundaries cannot limit love.
Going to India was a big jump for Mafi Saleh. Ghazan knew Bharat as the land of Shah Rukh Khan, and as soon as she traveled to Delhi, her friends asked her to greet SRK and even Amitabh Bachchan on the face of Indian cinema, which crossed the borders.
Life for the couple changed when he moved to America after spending years in India. The first major change came in 2023 with the Middle East conflict. The next year was the return of Donald Trump earlier this year, marking a shift shift in the US policy on Palestine.
Ms. Saleh would never have speculated that her Palestinian roots would create major challenges in the US. American academics now face exile if they display in support of Hamas. Palestinian Mahmood Khalil, who studied at Columbia University, was arrested for staging protests.
Trouble for Suri begins
The trouble for Mr. Suri began on March 17 when he was arrested outside his Virginia’s house by masked agents of the Homeland Security Department. He was told that his visa was canceled and he would be kept on exile test under the same law used against Khalil, demanding his release according to his lawyer filed.
Post-doctor at the University of Georgetown insisted that he never had a criminal record, but US authorities accused him of spreading “Hamas Publicity” and being in close contact with “suspected terrorist”.
“Suri was a foreign currency student at the University of Georgetpown who was actively spreading Hamas Publicity and promoting antismitism on social media. Suri has a close relationship with a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas,” said Trisia McCallin, an assistant secretary, Homeland Security.
In his petition for release, his lawyer Hassan Ahmed condemned his arrest as “targeted, retaliatory detention” with the aim of pacifying those who supported the rights of Palestinians. Mr. Ahmed argued that Mr. Suri was being targeted due to his wife’s Palestinian roots. Due to their Palestinian heritage, the government suspects that the couple opposed the US foreign policy for Israel according to them.
What did Georgetown say
Sri Suri was a faculty at the University of Georgetown in Washington, where he is teaching “prominence and minority rights in South Asia”. A university spokesman said that he had received American visas to continue “Iraq and Afghanistan’s doctoral research on peace manufacturing”.
“We do not know him about being engaged in any illegal activity, and we have not found a reason for his custody. We support independent and open investigation, discussion and debate to support the rights of our community members, even if it is difficult, controversial or objectionable to the underlying ideas. We expect the legal system to properly eliminate the matter.”
Alleged Hamas link
Ms. Saleh’s father, Ahmed, served herself as a “Senior Political Advisor of Hamas”. He wrote at least two up-ed pieces (since 2009 and 2014) for The Guardian, in which he talked about Hamas.
In another piece for the Middle East Eye in 2017, he highlighted the “active reluctance” of the global community to accept Hamas’s efforts to clarify his position towards Israel and conflict.
The US has not associated Ms. Saleh or her father with the arrest of Mr. Suri, but a senior American official reacted to a post about Hamas link. On X, Ms. McLaglin criticized Politico to describe the alleged link of Mr. Yusaf as “wrinkles” the alleged link of Hamasf and stated that it was determined to determine the Secretary of State Shri Suri.
Mr. Yusaf, former advisor to the late Hamas leader Ismail Honeyheh, told The New York Times that his son -in -law was not involved in any political activism, let Hamas go alone. Talking to another outlet, he said that he was trying to contact Mr. Suri, but could not.
In an interview quoted in the Politico report, he detained the “kidnapping by the government” of Mr. Suri, similar to the arrest of Mahmud Khalil. “We are trying to talk with him. This has not happened yet. This is just another example of our government, the way people kidnapped Khalil,” said Mr. Yusaf.
Wife appeals for safe return
Ms. Saleh was born in Missouri and went to Gaza at the age of five. In an emergency proposal filing with a civil rights organization, the American Civil Liberty Union (ACLU), she has made an appeal for her husband’s safe return.
The couple moved to America in 2022-23 due to their reputation for “Free Speech and Religious Freedom” with their children, DC News Now, a local outlet cited Ms. Saleh. Mr. Suri had already launched a fellowship in Georgetown, from which he could jump.
In October 2023, with the outbreak of mid -struggle, Ms. Saleh became active on social media. He felt that he was obliged to speak due to his journalism background and his Palestinian heritage. He posted daily material about Ghazan’s plight.
In February, he first learned that he was being targeted by his father’s role in the Gaza government, which was provoked by his social media posts. He said that the articles about him and his family made him feel insecure, especially the “false claims” that the couple had links to Hamas. The following month her husband was arrested.
She also provided a personal account, stating the incidents around her husband’s arrest. On March 17 at around 9:20 pm (local time), she received a call from her husband. He told him that he was being arrested outside his department.
Ms. Saleh said that she came down to find three uniformed agents handcuffing her husband. He shook him in a black SUV and left without providing the reason for his arrest. The next day, he informed him that he was in Luciana, about 1,600 km from Virginia.
She said that she is under extreme stress since her husband’s arrest and feels “completely insecure”. “I can’t stop looking at the door, nervous that someone else would come and take me and the children too,” he said.
While the officials said that they would deport Shri Suri, a local court blocked him immediately this morning.
Sri Suri is one of the latest academics facing Trump’s anger at supporting Palestine, which the President calls “terrorist sympathetic”.
Trump, who wants to become a global peacekeeping, has warned Hamas that he is holding the Israeli hostages back in Gaza. He has also supported the latest attack by Israel that occurred after the end of the weeks-long ceasefire.
But for the opposition to the pro -Palestine complex, their warnings were indicated and directly direct. Earlier this month, the US President threatened to cut the university’s funding for “illegal” protests. The participants can also be charged and deported, he warned.
