A Massachusetts court ruled that the detention of a former student who expressed pro-Palestine views was unconstitutional and that it was a punitive measure triggered almost solely by a complaint from the Zionist militant group Betar.

Late last week, a judge ruled that a former student at the University of Massachusetts (UMass), detained unlawfully by ICE, be released, providing the first court admission that Zionist extremist groups are working with U.S. authorities to violate free speech rights.

The former student in question is Efe Ercelik, a Turkish national who entered the U.S. on an F-1 student visa. After a physical altercation with a Jewish student during a protest in late 2023, the American corporate media and pro-Israel groups pointed to his case as evidence of rampant attacks against Jewish students on campus. However, the narrative originally propagated around Ercelik’s case also fell apart under further scrutiny.

On April 8, the Betar Worldwide group, which has a history of support for terrorism, posted a screenshot of a profile made of Ercelik by the infamous Canary Mission, known for doxing pro-Palestine university students, writing that they had submitted his name for deportation.

According to a 31-page court document released in the case, the former student’s name was indeed submitted to the authorities. Within 24 hours, the deputy assistant secretary of state for visa services then sent a memo to ICE. On April 10, the Department of Homeland Security issued an administrative warrant for Ercelik’s arrest.

A week later, ICE agents showed up at the former student’s home demanding that he surrender himself for arrest. Yet, when the agents were asked to present a warrant, they stated they didn’t have one. That is when they began issuing threats to Ercelik, telling him that if he “declined to surrender himself to those officers’ custody, regardless of their lack of a warrant, they would ensure that Petitioner will be charged with a federal hate crime and spend many years in federal prison.”

According to the court’s ruling, Ercelik’s detention was carried out in reaction to his political beliefs, which are protected under the First Amendment, and was “almost exclusively triggered” by the Betar group. The judge in the case, Angel Kelley, wrote in her decision that the incident “rises to the level of near absurdity.”

Judge Kelly found that ICE’s arrest of Mr. Ercelik was intended to punish him for pro-Palestinian advocacy.

The DHS warrant issued 48 hours after Betar’s tweet said it was because he had been placed into removal proceedings. That was a lie. It didn’t happen until 15 days later. pic.twitter.com/PHleUD3C9i

— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) May 9, 2025

In a later post on X, Betar Worldwide stated on the ex-student’s case that “there’s [sic] so many of these bastards nationwide he’s an egregious one in Massachusetts, a rotten state.”

Relevant to the case was that on Nov. 3, 2023, Ercelik had been involved in a physical altercation with pro-Israel protesters, expressing his pro-Palestinian stance before seizing and cutting up an Israeli flag, in addition to using profanities.

At the time, the corporate media and commentators accused Ercelik of “punching a Jewish student.” He was arrested and charged with assaulting a Jewish student at the rally, but pleaded not guilty. Later, he would plead guilty to misdemeanors that required no jail time, and his visa was not revoked.

The accusations of assault are still being spread on social media, despite there being at least three different accounts of what was said to have transpired—one which claims that a Jewish woman was kicked, another alleging that Ercelik spat at a pro-Israel student and used a kitchen knife to stab the Israeli flag. None of these accounts were proven.

For months after the incident, the case received little attention. That was until April 2024, when student encampments spread from Columbia University across the country. On April 30, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) filed a 60-page civil rights complaint against UMass, claiming that an “antisemitic climate” existed at the university.

The ADL obsessively focused on the case, pointing to it as evidence of college campus antisemitism. Jonathan Greenblatt, the pro-Israel group’s chief executive, remarked: “Even after a violent antisemitic assault on campus, UMass has done nothing to make Jewish students feel safe and, infuriatingly, this assault is the tip of the iceberg—part of a persistent pattern of enabling hate against Jews.”

The ADL complaint contradicted what Hillel, the Jewish college campus group responsible for organizing the rally where the incident occurred, stated at the time. The pro-Israel student group made it clear that they believed “there is no indication of any ongoing security threat.”

“We know this incident is disturbing to many of us, particularly during a time when tensions, emotion and concern are heightened on our campus. But we must not let the most extreme voices and actions create undue fear or dominate the campus climate,” UMass Hillel wrote in a statement, indicating that the incident, which they believed was an assault, was isolated.

There are still allegations spreading on social media accusing Ercelik of carrying out a violent assault, thanks to articles and posts making this claim which have not been corrected to match the updated facts. Instead, the allegations have worked to justify the unconstitutional arrest of a pro-Palestine advocate at the hands of an extremist group that engages in threatening tactics and glorifies murder.

Feature photo | A rally attended by Betar members in Paris, February 9, 2025. Cesar Vilette | Ola News | Sipa via AP Images

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

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