As nationwide protests bubble up this weekend over the arrest and detention of pro-Palestinian Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil last week, actress Debra Winger was among the demonstrators in a New York City protest outside Trump Tower on Wednesday.
In a viral interview with Al Jazeera, the three-time Oscar-nominated actress, who was raised Jewish, spoke out against some of the lessons she was taught about her faith and community growing up, specifically as it relates to Israel and Zionism. She said she “had to unlearn” those ideals and now has “a debt to pay.”
“I need to do all that I can,” the actress said at the protest.
Watch the clip below:
Debra Winger, the Oscar-nominated actress who is Jewish, was at the protests at Trump Tower in response to the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil. pic.twitter.com/kmLgHw9wXb
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) March 15, 2025
“I was brought up Jewish,” Winger said in the video. “I was brought up with a lot of things that weren’t true, I had to unlearn them and it’s taken me a lot of years. And now that I’m here, I need to do all that I can. I have a debt to pay.”
When asked to clarify her statement, Winger continued: “I have a debt for what I grew up with and believed on what the state of Israel has done and what they haven’t done, and how they’re conflating Judaism with Zionism.”
Protests in support of Khalil, an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent who rose to prominence while organizing pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University in last spring following the Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, were expected to continue in New York City, Boston, Phoenix, Charlotte, Oklahoma City, Miami and Indianapolis on Saturday and Sunday.
Khalil, a legal permanent resident in the U.S., was arrested by Trump-led immigration authorities in the middle of the night last weekend. On Monday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting the activist. The 30-year-old finished his classes in December at Columbia and was expected to graduate this spring. He is also expecting his first child with his wife, an American citizen.
