Join the social media storm today, Thursday, 11 March, using the hashtag #FreePalestinianStudents. Share your demands for freedom at 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern/6 pm UTC/7 pm central Europe/8 pm Palestine! A list of sample tweets and images you can use is available at https://bit.ly/FreePalestinianStudents.
Even as Palestinian students face ongoing attacks by the Israeli occupation, with approximately 35 students seized by armed occupation forces in just the last month, there is growing international outrage at the systematic repression of Palestinian student organizing and violations of the right to education.
Over 350 organizations have joined the #FreePalestinianStudents campaign, which includes social movements, political parties, trade unions, student associations, Palestinian and solidarity groups and many others. Supporters of the campaign include the Democratic Progressive Student Pole (Al-Qutob) in Palestine, the Landless Workers’ Movement (Movimento Sem Terra) in Brazil, the National Lawyers Guild in the United States, the Union degli Studenti in Italy, the All Nepal Peasants’ Federation, the Communist Youth Federation of Spain and the Fédération Syndicale Étudiante in France. (See the full list of endorsers below) Add your organization’s name to this statement: http://bit.ly/palstudentsignon
Click to tweet: Over 350 global organizations, including political parties, mass social movements, student organizations, churches, and labour unions, joined together in an international call for solidarity with imprisoned Palestinian students. #FreePalestinianStudents https://freepalestinianstudents.org
In Madrid, Samidoun España posted a large banner today, 11 March, demanding freedom for Palestinian students, noting that torture is legal in Israel. The banner was hung at the Madrid Metro Ciudad Universitaria station, the stop that leads to Complutense in Madrid.
Hoy jueves 11 de marzo a la twittstorm a partir de.las 19:00 CET, para seguir exigiendo la libertad de los compañeras palestinas; con el hashtag:
#FreePalestinianStudentshttps://t.co/a7mJNB5pDw
Metro Ciudad universitaria es la parada que lleva a la Complutense, Madrid pic.twitter.com/OLvd0WeJ6N— @Samidounspain (@samidounspain) March 11, 2021
This followed actions elsewhere in the world in support of Palestinian students, with students at the University of Grenoble in France taking dozens of solidarity photos to show their support for the hundreds of Palestinian students jailed by the Israeli occupation.
Click to tweet: We, the undersigned organizations, join our voices together in a global call to urge the immediate freedom of imprisoned Palestinian students and the protection of Palestinian students’ rights. #FreePalestinianStudents https://freepalestinianstudents.org
Students in Tunisia also came together to show solidarity with Palestinian students detained by the Israeli occupation, organized by the Tunisian Collective in Solidarity with Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, on 28 February and 5 March.
In Naples, Italy, the Centro Culturale Handala Ali highlighted the campaign to free Palestinian students and the case of Khalida Jarrar, imprisoned Palestinian leftist, feminist parliamentarian, as part of the protest outside the Poggioreale jail, in solidarity with detainees in Italian prisons and the Palestinian detainees in Israeli occupation jails.
Samidoun in occupied Palestine created two videos featuring the photos of 25 student prisoners jailed by the Israeli occupation from a range of universities:
Click to tweet: The Israeli occupation has targeted Palestinian students and, specifically, the Palestinian student movement and Palestinian student organizations for harsh repression and political detention and imprisonment. #FreePalestinianStudents https://freepalestinianstudents.org
Call to Action: #FreePalestinianStudents
We, the undersigned organizations, join our voices together in a global call to urge the immediate freedom of imprisoned Palestinian students and the protection of Palestinian students’ right to education, right to political expression and involvement and right to determine their own futures. The Israeli occupation has targeted Palestinian students and, specifically, the Palestinian student movement and Palestinian student organizations for harsh repression and political detention and imprisonment.
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.
**
Hundreds of Palestinian students are routinely detained by the Israeli occupation, especially those who are part of student organizations involved with campus political life. At Bir Zeit University alone, approximately 74 students were detained by occupation soldiers during the 2019-2020 academic year. They are among nearly 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners jailed by Israel. The work of student organizing, from holding book fairs to organizing events and participating in student elections, is criminalized by the Israeli occupation. Still more students are detained for joining demonstrations or posting on their social media profiles.
Palestinian students have been seized by Israeli occupation forces and abducted for their participation in the student movement in their homes, at their workplaces and on their campuses.
Once arrested, Palestinian students are routinely subjected to torture under interrogation — subjected to stress positions and stretched out over chairs, suspended from walls and forced to stand on tiptoe, deprived of sleep, cuffed and pressured on injured limbs, and beaten.
Palestinian students may be sent to administrative detention — imprisonment without charge or trial, indefinitely renewable in six-month periods. Palestinians routinely spend years jailed with no charges, no trial and no real challenge to the deprivation of their rights. They may be brought before Israeli military courts, which convict over 99% of the Palestinians charged there.
One of the most common charges is “membership in a prohibited organization,” typically referring to the student blocs. These represent the full spectrum of Palestinian politics. They organize lectures, book fairs, rallies and other campus events and participate in student elections. The charge sheets often refer to these standard activities of campus life, which are widely interpreted as a barometer for broader Palestinian political opinion.
The targeting Palestinian students is an attack on Palestinian futures. It is a systematic attempt to undermine the capacity of young Palestinians to organize with one another for a liberated future for their people: One free of colonization, apartheid and occupation.
These are not isolated cases, but a direct and collective violation of Palestinian students’ right to education, as affirmed in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The targeted repression of students is just one facet of Israel’s crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people.
We condemn the complicity of the Palestinian Authority, which has not only failed to defend Palestinian students but has also engaged in political detention and harassment of student movements as part of its “security coordination” with Israel.
Palestinian students in occupied Palestine ‘48 — Palestinian students in Israel — are subjected to ongoing, systematic harassment and discrimination, including bans on student groups and prohibitions on demonstrations and protests.
Further, Palestinian and Palestine solidarity student groups internationally are targeted for campaigns of defamation, organization bans and administrative repression, with these efforts officially and unofficially supported by the Israeli government and pro-apartheid lobby organizations around the world. All the while, Palestinian refugee students are denied their right to return to occupied Palestine.
This persecution is supported by the billions of dollars in aid, military transactions and unlimited political support given to Israel by major imperialist powers like the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union states and Australia. This coincides with the militarization of police in imperialist countries and their global use of military and economic domination against the peoples of the world. Israeli persecution of Palestinians mirrors the state repression of popular movements and marginalized peoples in these countries, especially indigenous and Black liberation movements.
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!
Add your organization’s name to this statement: http://bit.ly/palstudentsignon
Endorsers
- 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-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)
- 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 Nationale des Communistes – ANC
- Association of Palestinian Students – University of Toronto Mississauga
- Associazione Amicizia Sardegna Palestina
- Associazione Senza Paura Genova
- AssoPacePalestina
- Australia Solidarity with Latin America
- Bahraini Society to Resist Normalization with Zionism
- Bathurst Street United Church
- BAYAN Canada
- BAYAN Canada
- BAYAN USA
- BDS France Marseille
- BDS France Montpellier
- BDS Genova
- 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
- 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
- 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 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
- 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)
- 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
- 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
- KAMARAD-مجموعة عمل نشريّة كاماراد/تونس
- Kia Ora Gaza (Aotearoa New Zealand)
- 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
- 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
- NY Boricua Resistance
- NY4Palestine Coalition
- Oakland Jericho
- Ongd AFRICANDO
- Opera con Grazia
- Opposizione Studentesca d’Alternativa (OSA)
- OPRA (Oakville Palestinian Rights Association)
- Palästina Antikolonial
- 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
- 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
- Sikhay-Marikina
- SJP Chicago
- SJP DePaul
- SOAS Palestine Society
- Socialist Action / Ligue pour l’Action socialiste
- SODePAZ BALAMIL
- Solidaires 09
- 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)
- 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 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
