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There are hundreds of Palestinian high school and university students among the approximately 4,500 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, in many cases specifically targeted for Israeli colonial imprisonment and repression for their student activism, organizing student events and participation in student elections and other political and social activities on campus. As Israeli settlers rampage through Jerusalem and Palestinians resist the threatened impending forced transfer and ethnic cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah, occupied Jerusalem, the attacks on Palestinian students — and their organizing and resistance — have continued.

A number of new organizations have joined the over 350 global social movements, political parties, Palestine solidarity groups and justice campaigns in the #FreePalestinianStudents campaign, including Academics for Peace North America, Women Against Military Madness, Basler Frauen für Frieden und Fortschritt, Baslerfreuenvereinigung für Frieden und Fortschritt, Palästina/Nahost-Intiative Heidelberg, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) Germany, Atelier Gaza, Solidarität International, KAIROS Palästina-Solidaritätsnetz Deutschland, and Dar al Janub – Union for Antiracism and Peace Policy.

On 7 May, at 1 pm New York time (10 am Pacific, 8 pm Palestine), FREE CUNY will host an online event in solidarity with Palestinian students, including a talk by Palestinian activist and Within Our Lifetime chair Nerdeen Kiswani. The event will include an online gathering to write letters to imprisoned Palestinian students. Join the event here.

Students at the University of Nanterre in France with ARENE (Association des Résidents de Nanterre) showed their support for Palestinian students by taking solidarity photos with imprisoned Palestinian students.

In May, people at the market in Clermont-l’Herault in France showed their solidarity with imprisoned Palestinian students, joining the campaign to demand their liberation.

As the support campaign continues to grow, Palestinian students continue to face severe injustice and fight back against Israeli colonialism, occupation and oppression. Zuhdi al-Qawariq, an engineering student at An-Najah University in Nablus, was seized by occupation forces at the Huwarra checkpoint on 28 February 2021. On 20 April, after 40 days under interrogation, he was ordered to administrative detention for four months — imprisonment without charge or trial. Qawariq, 24, has been delayed repeatedly in graduating because he has been imprisoned by the Israeli occupation for nearly two years in multiple detentions, while also being arrested by Palestinian Authority “security” forces under “security coordination” with the Israeli occupation.

On 30 March, Birzeit University student activist Abdel-Majeed Majed Hassan was seized from his home in Ramallah by Israeli occupation forces. A student of business at Birzeit, he is the brother of imprisoned student Mohammed Hassan and of former student prisoner Shatha Hassan, both also Birzeit students.

Imprisoned Palestinian student Zaid Qaddoumi, 22, an economics student at Birzeit from Bethlehem, was brutally attacked by Israeli jailers in Megiddo prison. He was brought to the occupation Ofer military court on 11 April — only for his case to be postponed another 7 days. When his mother saw him, she was shocked to see her son covered in bruises with significant injury to his left eye. He was violently attacked on the morning of 6 April; he has been imprisoned since 31 December 2020.

Also on 11 April, Palestinian student Ahmed Kharouf was sentenced to 22 months in Israeli prison by an illegitimate Israeli military court for his student activity.

We cannot and must not remain silent about the persecution of the Palestinian student movement and of individual Palestinian students behind Israeli bars. We stand with Palestinian students! 

Visit the main #FreePalestinianStudents campaign page: https://freepalestinianstudents.org/

Add your organization’s name to the #FreePalestinianStudents campaign: http://bit.ly/palstudentsignon

We join together to call for action and support for Palestinian students behind bars, including: 

• Boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, including Israeli academic institutions, which are fully complicit in the systematic deprivation of Palestinian rights.
• Ending all military and economic aid, military transactions, joint projects and direct funding to the Israeli occupation regime by governments around the world.
• Challenging “normalization” programs that aim to legitimize Israeli occupation — this is an attempt to legitimize the criminalization and targeting of Palestinian students.
• Organizing to build direct links of solidarity with Palestinian students and the Palestinian student movement, to ensure that they will not be isolated from their global community of support despite all attempts by the Israeli occupation.

Download posters, flyers and an organizing toolkit at: https://freepalestinianstudents.org/

Endorsers of the Campaign

• 100 Idee per la Pace Siena – Italy
• Action Antifasciste Paris Banlieue
• ADDICTED To WAR
• AFPS 0726 (Association France Palestine Solidarité Groupe local Ardèche Drôme)
• AFPS 63 (France)
• AFPS Douai
• AFPS Nord- Pas de Calais
• AFPS Paris 14-6
• AFPS PARIS-SUD
• Africa4Palestine
• Al Quds Day Committee of New York
• Al-Awda NY, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition
• Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition
• Alkarama Palestinian women’s movement)
• All Nepal Peasants’ Federation (ANPFa)
• All Nepal Peasants’ Federation (Revolutionary Centre)
• Alliance for Global Justice
• Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine
• Allt åt Alla Kvinnofront
• القطب الطلابي الديمقراطي التقدمي Al Qutob – Progressive Democratic Student Pole at Bir Zeit University
• Al-Yudur Juventud Palestina | Al-Juzour Palestinian Youth
• Amis des Arts et de al Culture de Palestine
• AMP-NJ
• Anakbayan-USA
• Anti Imperialist Action Ireland
• Anti-Imperialist Alliance – Ottawa
• Anti-Imperialist Alliance Youth (AIA Youth – Ottawa)
• Anti-Imperialist Front – France (AIF)
• Antirasistiska Akademin
• Arbetarmakt (Workers Power) – Swedish Section of The League for the Fifth International
• ARENE (Association des ResidEnts de NanterrE)
• Asamblea Plaza de los Pueblos Madrid
• Asociación Brasileña Maloka
• Asociación Estudiantil Madrid
• Asociación Palestina Biladi
• Asociación Punto Feminista Alcorcón
• Asociación Teatro de la Tierra
• Asociación Unadikum
• Associación Americana de Juristas
• Association Car t’y es libre
• Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine (AURDIP)
• Association Eunomia
• Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees
• Association France Palestine Solidarité d’Albertville
• Association France Palestine Solidarité Loire
• Association France Palestine Solidarité Nîmes
• Association Najdeh
• Association Nationale des Communistes – ANC
• Association of Palestinian Students – University of Toronto Mississauga
• Association of Student Activism for Palestine (A.S.A.P))
• Associazione Amicizia Sardegna Palestina
• Associazione Senza Paura Genova
• AssoPacePalestina
• Atelier Gaza
• Australia Solidarity with Latin America
• Bahraini society against normalization with Zionist enemy
• Bahraini Society to Resist Normalization with Zionism
• Basler Frauen für Frieden und Fortschritt
• Baslerfreuenvereinigung für Frieden und Fortschritt
• Bathurst Street United Church
• BAYAN Canada
• BAYAN Canada
• BAYAN USA
• BDS France Marseille
• BDS France Montpellier
• BDS Genova
• BDS Maroc – BDS المغرب
• BDS Mexico
• BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish Territories
• Belgian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (BACBI)
• Bloque Nacionalista Galego (BNG)
• Boycott, Divest, Sanction, on CATerpillar
• Bündnis gegen Krieg / Hände weg von Syrien
• California Scholars for Academic Freedom
• Campagne Unitaire pour la Libération de Georges Abdallah
• Campaign for International Cooperation and Disarmament (CICD)
• Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat
• Canada Palestine Association
• Canada Palestine Support Network (CanPalNet)
• Canada-Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights (CPSHR)
• Canadian BDS Coalition
• Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3902 BDS Committee
• Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)
• CAPJPO-EuroPalestine
• Catholics for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land (Canada)
• Center for Study and Preservation of Palestine
• Centre for Counter Hegemonic Studies
• Centro Culturale Handala Ali – مركز حنظله علي الثقافي
• Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
• Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine
• Col·lectiu Intifada
• Coletivo Feminista Classista ANA MONTENEGRO
• Coletivo pelos direitos no Brasil
• Collectif 65 pour la liberation de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah
• Collectif 69 de soutien au peuple palestinien
• Collectif Judéo Arabe et Citoyen pour la Palestine
• Collectif Palestine Vaincra
• Collectif stéphanois de soutien au peuple palestinien
• Collettivo Palestina Rossa
• Comité Antifa Saint Etienne
• Comité d’actions et de soutien aux luttes du peuple marocain
• Comité de Défense des Internés des Camps du Sud (Algérie)
• Comite de Liberté pour Musa Aşoğlu!
• Comité de solidarité avec le peuple palestinien/Casablanca
• Comité de solidarité tunisien pour la libération de Georges Abdallah
• Comité justice et vérité 31
• Comité pour une Paix Juste au Proche Orient (CPJPO)
• Committee of Anti-Imperialists in Solidarity with Iran (CASI)
• Communist Organization of Greece (KOE)
• Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninst) Liberation
• Communist Workers League
• Comunidad Palestina de Chile
• Confederación Intersindical Galega (CIG)
• Confederation of Workers from Turkey in Europe – ATIK
• Cordillera Peoples Alliance
• Couserans-Palestine
• CRED-GIGI
• Cultura è Libertà, una campagna per la Palestina
• Dallas Palestine Coalition
• Dar al Janub – Union for Antiracism and Peace Policy
• Deutsch-Palästinensischer Frauenverein e.V.
• Dirección de DDHH y Pluralismo Cultural. FHyAr
• Droit Solidarite
• DSA BDS & Palestine Solidarity Working Group Steering Committee
• East Los Angeles Revolutionary Action Party
• Éirígí- for A New Republic
• End the Deadly Exchange Seattle
• Europal Forum – London
• Eye On Palestine Arts and Film Festival
• Fédération Syndicale Étudiante (FSE)
• Femmes de diverses origines/Women of Diverse Origins
• Festiclown
• Finnish-Arab Friendship Society, FAFS
• FIRMES: Federación Internacional de Resistencia Migrante en España
• Fordham SJP
• Framåt kamrater
• Free CUNY!
• Free Palestine Movement
• Freedom Road Socialist Organization
• French Friends of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin (ATL Jénine)
• Frente Antiimperialista Internacionalista
• Friends of Palestine Against Imperialism and Zionism (Filistin Dostlari)
• Friends of Sabeel North America
• Front Populaire France (Turquie)
• Front Uni des Immigrations et des Quartiers Populaires de Grenoble (FUIQP 38)
• GABRIELA Alliance of Filipino Women
• GABRIELA BC
• Galizan People’s Union-UPG
• GATS
• Gazainfo
• Giovani palestinesi d’Italia
• Giuristi Democratici
• GMB union z60 branch Lincoln
• Green Mountain Solidarity With Palestine
• Groupe Non-Violent LOUIS LECOIN
• GUPS Aix-Marseille
• Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
• Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War
• HRA:PI/CD3-IP (Human Rights Awareness: Palestine Israel/CD3 Israel Palestine
• Human Rights March, Denmark
• Humanity For Palestine
• ILPS Commission on Children
• Indiana Center for Middle East Peace
• Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL)
• Inminds Human Rights Group
• International Action Center
• International Association of Democratic Lawyers
• International Committee for Breaking the Siege on Gaza (ICBSG)
• International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)
• International League of Peoples’ Struggle – Australia Chapter
• International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) – Commission 10
• International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) – US Northeast
• International League of Peoples’ Struggle-US
• International Movement for a Just World (JUST)
• International Prisoners’ Network IPN
• International Solidarity Movement
• International Solidarity Movement France
• Internationalist Socialist League in Israel(occupied Palestine)
• Internationalt Forum – Denmark
• Int’l Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity
• IPNOTGlobal
• Ireland Information Group of Sweden
• ISM Northern California
• Israel Palestine Task Force
• Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) Germany
• IU-Marx Madera
• IWA – Europe
• Jailhouse Lawyers Speak
• Jeune Garde Lyon
• Jeunes Communistes de la Loire (JC42)
• Jeunes Communistes du Bas-Rhin (France)
• Jeunesse Patriote Communiste – PCQ
• Jeunesse solidaire
• Jewish Voice for Peace – Bay Area
• Jewish Voice for Peace – Los Angeles
• Jewish Voice For Peace Central Ohio
• Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
• Jóvenes Izquierda Unida
• Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste
• Justice for Palestinians, Calgary
• Justice pour la Palestine
• KAIROS Palästina-Solidaritätsnetz Deutschland
• KAMARAD-مجموعة عمل نشريّة كاماراد/تونس
• Kia Ora Gaza (Aotearoa New Zealand)
• La Coalition Marocaine des Instances des Droits Humains
• Labor for Palestine
• Landless Workers Movement – MST
• Le Collectif Rouge Internationalistes pour la libération des prisonniers révolutionnaire (Le CRI Rouge – Paris)
• Le Collectif Solidarité Palestine Ouest Étang de Berre
• Le Poing Levé Mirail
• Le poing levé Paris 8
• League of Filipino Students
• League of Filipino Students – Cavite State University
• League of Filipino Students PUP
• Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
• Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
• Letters for Palestine – Aotearoa New Zealand
• Lynne Stewart Organization
• Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights
• Mar de Lumes – Comité Galego de Solidariedade Internacionalista
• Massachusetts Peace Action
• Melbourne Unitarian Peace Memorial Church (MUPMC)
• Mesa Migración y Antirracismo SBC
• MOVIMIENTO WIPHALA España
• Muslim Action Committee
• الحملة الوطنية لتحرير الأسير جورج عبدالله National Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah
• National Jericho Movement
• National Lawyers Guild
• National Lawyers Guild International Committee
• National Lawyers Guild, Loyola Chicago Chapter
• National Students for a Democratic Society
• National Students for Justice in Palestine
• Netherlands Palestine Committee
• Netzwerk Freiheit für alle politischen Gefangenen Magdeburg
• Niagara Movement for Justice in Palestine-Israel (NMJPI)
• Noi Restiamo
• NorCal Sabeel
• North America Nakba Tour
• Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste (NPA, France)
• NPA Jeunes
• NWRG-onlus
• NY Boricua Resistance
• NY4Palestine Coalition
• Oakland Jericho
• Ongd AFRICANDO
• Opera con Grazia
• Opposizione Studentesca d’Alternativa (OSA)
• OPRA (Oakville Palestinian Rights Association)
• Palästina Antikolonial
• Palästina/Nahost-Intiative Heidelberg
• Palestina Libre Murcia España
• Palestinalibre.org
• Palestine Advocacy Project
• Palestine Foundation
• Palestine Network Shining Waters Region, United Church of Canada
• Palestine Solidarity Alliance of Hunter College CUNY
• Palestine Solidarity Committee Stuttgart, Germany
• Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
• Palestine Speaks Palästina Spricht ( Coalition for Palestinian Rights and Against Racism)
• Palestine13
• Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU)
• Palestinian Cultural Club at the American University of Beirut
• Palestinian Youth Movement
• Pallasos en Rebeldia
• Parti des Indigènes de la République
• Peace Alliance Winnipeg
• Peoples Power Assemblies NYC
• Peoples Power Assembly
• Peoria No Ban No Wall
• Philippines ‐ Palestine Friendship Association
• Philippines Australia Union Link
• PISTON
• Plataforma Bolivariana de Solidaridad con Venezuela de Madrid
• Plataforma Solidaria con Palestina de Valladolid
• Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine
• Popular Resistance
• Principles NOT Parties
• Prisoners Solidarity Committee
• Prisoners Solidarity Committee of Workers World Party
• Progressive Lawyers Association, CHD
• Project South
• Rattvise och frihet center
• Red Banner Anti-Imperialist Collective
• Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP
• Resistance Festival – Athens, Greece
• Resistencia Saharaui
• Rete della Conoscenza
• Rete Romana di Solidarietà cin il Popolo Palestinese
• Revolutionaire Eenheid
• Revolutionary Communist Group
• Rojavakommittéerna Göteborg
• SABIR
• Sacramento Area Peace Action
• Sacramento Regional Coalition for Palestinian Rights
• Sada Movement
• Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns
• Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
• Santa Feans for Justice in Palestine
• سير وصيرورة Sayr wa Sayroura
• SDS (Students for a Democratic Society)
• SDSU SJP
• Secours Rouge de Belgique
• Secours Rouge Genève
• Secours Rouge International / International Red Help
• Secours Rouge Montréal
• Secours Rouge Toulouse
• Secrétariat International de la CNT-France
• Ship to Gaza – Gothenburg
• جمعية شموع للمساواة / المغرب Shumu’a Association for Equality/Morocco
• Sikhay-Marikina
• SJP Chicago
• SJP DePaul
• SOAS Palestine Society
• Socialist Action / Ligue pour l’Action socialiste
• SODePAZ BALAMIL
• Solidaires 09
• Solidarität International
• Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights UBC
• SPHR Queen’s
• Stand with Kashmir
• Studenten voor Rechtvaardigheid in Palestina
• Students Against Israeli Apartheid, University of Toronto
• Students Against the Occupation DK
• Students for a Democratic Society – Georgia Tech
• Students For Justice in Palestine – San Diego State University
• Students for Justice in Palestine at Arizona State University
• Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA
• Students for Justice in Palestine at UMass Amherst
• Students for Justice in Palestine, University of California Irvine
• Students for Justice in Palestine, University of South Carolina
• Students in Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill University (SPHR McGill)
• Students Not Consumers
• SUD Education 31-65
• Sulong UBC
• Temple Students for Justice in Palestine
• The Global Campaign to Return to Palestine
• The Palestine Committee of Norway
• The Palestine Solidarity Committee – Austin, Tx
• The Rachel Corrie Foundation
• Theorie und Praxis Verlag
• Trawunche Madrid (Coordinación de Apoyo al Pueblo Mapuche)
• Trueque de Ley por Derecho
• Tunisian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (TACBI)
• UBC Social Justice Centre
• UCL (union communiste libertaire)
• UJFP
• UMass Amherst SJP
• Unión de Juventudes Comunistas de España – Communist Youth Union of Spain (UJCE)
• Union Départementale des Syndicats CNT de Haute-Garonne
• Union départementale des syndicats CNT des Pyrénées Orientales
• Union des Étudiant·e·s de Toulouse – UET
• Union Générale des Etudiants de Palestine – GUPS France
• Union syndicale Solidaires
• Unione degli Studenti
• Unione Democratica Arabo Palestinese
• Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East
• Unité Communiste
• United Methodists’ Holy Land Task Force
• United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)
• Unity of Child Rights Advocates Against Inhumane Treatment and Neglect of Children (UNCHAIN Children)
• University of Leicester Palestine Society
• US Boats to Gaza
• US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
• US Palestinian Community Network
• UW United Students Against Sweatshops
• Vänsterpartiet Göteborg
• Victoria Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
• V-SB (Vlaams Socialistische Beweging)
• Wisconsin Bail Out The People Movement
• Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine
• Women Against Military Madness
• Women for Filipino Women and Children (WoW)
• Women in Black, Vienna, Austria
• Workers Assembly Against Racism
• Workers Voice Socialist Movement, Louisiana
• Workers World Party
• Yeni Demokratik Gençlik – YDG
• Youth Against War & Racism
• Youth and Students Section of the Lebanese Communist Party

Add your organization’s name to the #FreePalestinianStudents campaign: http://bit.ly/palstudentsignon

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All images in this article are from Samidoun