Mahmoud Khalil's Memoir 'No Land to Stand On' Excerpt Recounts 2011 Nakba Day March in Syria
CULTURED magazine has chosen 'No Land to Stand On' by Mahmoud Khalil as its Book Club selection for October, featuring an excerpt from the memoir. Published by Metropolitan Books, the narrative chronicles Khalil's experience of over 100 days in an ICE detention center in 2025 following his protest against Israel's actions in Gaza at Columbia University. The excerpt reflects on May 15, 2011, when Khalil, born in Syria in 1995 to Palestinian refugee parents, participated in a march towards the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, skipping a trigonometry exam and reuniting with his father. During the march, Israeli soldiers fired, injuring Khalil in the leg. It also recounts his grandfather's expulsion in 1948 and his father's migration to Germany in 2015. The memoir is titled 'No Land to Stand On: Notes from Detention,' with copyright held by Mahmoud Khalil in 2026.
Key facts
- CULTURED's October Book Club selection is Mahmoud Khalil's 'No Land to Stand On,' published by Metropolitan Books
- Khalil spent more than 100 days in an ICE detention center in 2025 after protesting Israel's war on Gaza at Columbia University
- Khalil was born in Syria in 1995 to Palestinian refugee parents
- On May 15, 2011, the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba, Khalil joined a march to the Syria–Golan Heights border as a teenager
- Khalil skipped a trigonometry exam to attend the march after his Palestinian math teacher encouraged him
- More than a hundred protesters crossed the fence into Majdal Shams, the largest border crossing since 1973, and four protesters were killed
- Khalil was shot in the leg; shrapnel remains in his left calf
- Khalil's grandfather was expelled from Tiberias during the 1948 Nakba, and his father fled Syria for Germany in 2015
Entities
Artists
- Mahmoud Khalil
- Abulmurr
- Sam Tarling
Institutions
- CULTURED
- Metropolitan Books
- Columbia University
- ICE
- Getty Images
- Corbis
Locations
- Syria
- Khan Eshieh Camp
- Palestine
- Israel
- Gaza
- Lebanon
- Jordan
- Golan Heights
- Majdal Shams
- Valley of Screams
- Tiberias
- Germany
- New York
- United States
- Maroun ar Ras