No Land to Stand On

A revelatory and powerful testament of protest, courage and imprisonment in America’s deportation regime.

'A searing account' – The Guardian
'A quietly shattering memoir' – New York Times
'Compelling and deeply human' – Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
'An extraordinary book that everyone should read' – Kamila Shamsie
'Already a classic of dissident literature' – Pankaj Mishra

‘Are you Mahmoud Khalil?’ With this question, ICE took the Palestinian student and US legal resident from his pregnant wife and home in New York City, transported him across the country and locked him up in a Louisiana detention camp under threat of deportation. His ‘crime’: exercising his right to free speech at Columbia University, where he emerged as a leading voice against the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. No Land to Stand On is his indelible account of becoming the target of a lawless regime shredding basic rights.

Drawing on his prison diary and writing in vivid, shocking detail, Mahmoud Khalil conjures the despair and cruelty of ICE detention, where prisoners can vanish overnight and visiting families risk their own deportation. In tandem, he tells the multigenerational story of a family expelled from Palestine to a Syrian refugee camp, of his flight from Assad’s regime to Lebanon, of arrival in an America that promised permanence and protection, and of the enduring struggle for Palestine.

An era-defining account of the cost of dissent and a work of immense courage, resistance and moral clarity, No Land to Stand On is a call to all of us to defend our right to safety, freedom and a place to call home.

'This book will light a fire under you' – Mona Chalabi
'An unflinching account of what it costs to insist on one's dignity' – susan abulhawa
'A defining document of our age' – Peter Beinart
'A rare chance to read history as it unfolds' – Yasmin Zaher
'A tale of courage in the face of unbelievable wickedness' – Benjamin Moser