Protests against Israeli genocide on US campuses offer hope to Gaza students | Gaza News

On April 21, Hala Sharaf's heart was heavy as she left her family in Gaza to return to her studies in Cairo, Egypt.

After surviving Israel's devastating war against the besieged enclave, she feared the world had forgotten the plight of her people.

Gaza is under relentless Israeli attack in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on Israeli communities and military outposts on October 7, in which 1,139 people were killed and around 250 captured.

In Cairo, Hala saw videos of university students protesting across the United States in the face of threats of suspension and police raids.

The second-year medical student was surprised. She had expected that Western audiences would quickly tire of the news cycle as it covered death and destruction in Palestine, and she never imagined that her American peers would risk their futures to call for a cease. -fire and the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

It seems like only the students support us, but they have given us so much hope to reject what America and Israel are doing to us, Sharaf, 20, told Al Jazeera.

Hala Sharaf wears a black hijab and kisses her friend in the Gaza Strip [Courtesy of Hala Sharaf]
Our voice

Sharafs is one of millions of Palestinian lives upended by Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed some 35,000 Palestinians, uprooted most of its 2.3 million residents and plunged their families outside Gaza into fear of death. uncertainty as they searched for information about their loved ones.

No one can imagine what we experienced in Gaza. We lost our homes and [everything that underpins] our society.

Many Palestinians have moved to Egypt to escape Israel's relentless assault and imminent invasion of Rafah, on the Egyptian border, where at least 1.5 million Palestinians displaced from across Gaza are sheltering.

Four Palestinian students who recently visited Cairo spoke to Al Jazeera about the American student protests.

I think these American students are our voice, said Zahra al-Kurd, 19, a Palestinian medical student in Cairo.

Even if the protests don't change the situation for us now, we know they will help us in the long run.

Zahra al-Kurd, front, takes a selfie with her classmates at Al-Azhar University [Courtesy of Zahra al-Kurd]

Al-Kurd says he has lost 250 family members since Israel launched its war on Gaza.

During the first week of the war, al-Kurd and his family fled to southern Gaza to seek safety from Israel's indiscriminate bombing.

But after their arrival, a bomb fell on the house next to them and razed the neighborhood.

Al-Kurd lost 17 members of her family in this Israeli attack, but she survived.

My mother's face was too disfigured to identify and my father died in hospital from his injuries about a week later, she told Al Jazeera.

Losing a future and mentors

Since October 7, Israel has destroyed or damaged more than 280 schools and all 12 universities in Gaza.

Mohamad Abu Ghali, 22, remembers watching from his window as the Israeli army destroyed his university, the Islamic University.

He was supposed to graduate from physics last semester, but the ceremony never took place because of the war.

I was at home and from my window it was very clear what had happened to the Islamic University. When [Israel] In case of massive bombing or carpet bombing, it can be seen from everywhere, he told Al Jazeera.

On April 25, Abu Ghali left Rafah to attempt to complete his studies in Cairo. Since then, he has closely observed the protests taking place in the United States.

Mohamad Abu Ghali in his apartment in Cairo, Egypt [Courtesy of Mohamad Abu Ghali]

He said he was moved by a viral video of Noelle McAfee, chair of the philosophy department at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who was arrested by police and tied up for trying to protect students in the encampment of protest.

Hundreds of other university professors across the United States have been arrested for defending student protesters and heavily armed police units.

At Columbia University in New York, professors even formed a human chain to protect students, despite the threat of losing their jobs and careers because of their actions.

Abu Ghali said the courageous American professors remind him of his own instructors, many of whom lost their lives in what rights groups call an Israeli genocide. He particularly misses Sufyan Tayeh, president of the Islamic University, who was killed with his family in the Jabalia refugee camp.

Tayeh is one of 95 university professors killed since October 7, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

[Tayeh] “He was a truly extraordinary teacher,” Abu Ghali said fondly. He had such an advanced understanding of quantitative mechanics and advanced mathematics that I loved attending his classes.

A semblance of hope

The Israeli war in Gaza destroyed an entire society and shattered the dreams of a young generation, according to Tia al-Qudwa, a young medical student who also sought refuge in Egypt.

She had just started college when the war broke out, and she hoped to graduate and help improve Gaza's overburdened health system, now in ruins after Israel damaged or destroyed dozens of facilities. medical facilities, including 24 of Gaza's 36 hospitals.

I have now changed my preference from studying medicine to international law, al-Qudwa, 18, told Al Jazeera.

Of course, international law hasn't changed anything, but what am I going to do? Either I have to accept the world as unfair or be part of the change.

Tia al-Qudwa delivers speech at high school graduation [Courtesy of Tia al-Qudwa]

After observing the student protests, al-Qudwa believes that there is a generational shift in the way Americans view the Palestinian cause and that the protests prove that many young people are determined to end Israeli oppression of Palestinians , despite the risks they run.

I can't believe police are attacking peaceful protesters in the United States. How is this democratic? What is happening there is fascism, al-Qudwa said.

I admire the students who are protesting. They are risking their lives and their future for us.

Sharaf, a second-year medical student, said many Palestinians in Gaza appreciate the solidarity of their peers in the United States. She prays that the protests will pressure Israel to end its stated plan to invade Rafah, where her parents and relatives are.

The student protests in America make me feel like I am not alone, Sharaf told Al Jazeera.

My message to them is to stay focused on Gaza.

Don't forget Gaza.

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