On Saturday, Mahmoud Khalil and his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, sat down with the hosts of “The Weekend: Primetime” for their first joint television interview following the Palestinian activist’s release from immigration detention earlier this month.
Abdalla was eight months pregnant with the couple’s first child when her husband was taken into custody in early March. She gave birth to a baby boy, Deen, in April. Immigration officials denied Khalil’s request for a temporary release to attend his son’s birth.
It’s very risky, but also, the moral price I would pay if I remain silent I believe it’s much higher.
“After he got detained, it was kind of like a race against the clock for me,” Abdalla said. “It was a fight every single day.” Although she eventually accepted that Khalil would miss the birth of their son, Abdalla said that returning home after the hospital was the hardest part of the experience.
“We walked into the apartment, and it was just, it was like quiet, and it’s not how I imagined walking into my apartment with my new baby,” she said. “I don’t know. I think all the emotions kind of hit me at that point. I just, I just wanted him to be there.”
“I’m now dealing with the fact that, you know, I lost, like, one of the divine moments with my wife and son,” Khalil said. “And I think it’s just unbelievable that someone had the cruelty to take that moment from me.”
Despite his experience in detention, Khalil told the panel he had no plans to stop protesting. “I don’t think there’s a choice when your people are being slaughtered by the day that you would remain silent or whatnot,” he said.
“It’s very risky, but also, the moral price I would pay if I remain silent I believe it’s much higher,” Khalil said.
You can watch Khalil and Abdalla’s full interview in the clip at the top.