Protests and encampments at college campuses around the world were held in solidarity with Gaza.
Staff and students at the An-Najah National University in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus held a demonstration on Sunday in solidarity with Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The university’s spokesperson, Riad al-Dabai, underlined the importance of “supporting Gaza, which was exposed to the genocidal war, and the victory of the Palestinian people,” reported the Anadolu news agency.
‘Student Intifada’ – Gaza’s Students Express Solidarity with US Students’ Protests
Meanwhile, student movements in Gaza have expressed solidarity with the students on university campuses in the United States for transforming their universities into ‘Popular Universities for Gaza’.
“We, the students of Gaza, salute the students of Columbia University, Yale University, New York University, Rutgers University, the University of Michigan, and dozens of universities across the United States who are rising up in solidarity with Gaza and to put an end to the Zionist-U.S. genocide against our people in Gaza,” the student movements said in a statement.
US Students Arrested
Protests began at Columbia University ten days ago and have since spread to more than 20 universities and colleges across the US, with hundreds of students arrested.
“As we remain under the bombs of occupation, resisting Nazi genocide, grieving for our martyred colleagues and faculty, and witnessing the destruction of our universities, we welcome the examples of solidarity offered by students facing arrest, police violence, suspension, eviction, and expulsion,” the statement, signed by 13 Gazan student organizations, added.
It acknowledged that the students’ protest action was “in order to demand that their universities end their complicity in the Zionist-U.S. genocide and renounce their support for the occupation and the war profiteers that arm it.”
Palestine West Bank : Birzeit University students hold protests in support of Gaza. pic.twitter.com/ohghyaqWyO
— S p r i n t e r F a c t o r y (@Sprinterfactory) April 29, 2024
According to Gaza’s government media office, 103 schools and universities have been destroyed in Israel’s ongoing genocidal assault on the enclave.
Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine in a statement on Friday emphasized that “What began with a few students has grown into a vibrant communal space, far more educational than a college course.”
“In the face of mass slaughter and our own complicity in imperialist oppression, we gather together knowing that the strength of this camp comes from the Palestinian people,” the statement added.
From #Birzeit_University We all Stand Together#SJP #CampusProtests #popular_university_for_gaza . #stopthegenocide pic.twitter.com/fxzRPIOtWE
— Birzeit University (@BirzeitU) April 25, 2024
Over 34,000 Killed
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 34,488 Palestinians have been killed, and 77,643 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
Genocide Continues – Scores Killed as Israel Carries Out New Massacres in Gaza
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(PC, Anadolu)
