Join the social media storm to #FreePalestinianStudents – Thursday 11 March – in 1 hour!

#FreePalestinianStudents Twitter Storm and Social Media Campaign
Thursday, 11 March
10 am Pacific – 1 pm Eastern – 7 pm central Europe – 8 pm Palestine
Use the hashtag: #FreePalestinianStudents
Suggested Tweets and Images: https://bit.ly/FreePalestinianStudents

Join the #FreePalestinianStudents campaign – supported by over 300 organizations around the world – for a social media action and Twitter storm on Thursday, 11 March!

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.

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.

On March 11, join us to demand: #FreePalestinianStudents!

Suggested Tweets and Images: https://bit.ly/FreePalestinianStudents

Here are just a few sample tweets to get started! Find the rest at https://bit.ly/FreePalestinianStudents

Click to tweet: Israeli authorities routinely arrest politically active Palestinian students. #FreePalestinianStudents https://www.972mag.com/birzeit-student-arrests-israel/

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

Click to tweet: A student at Bir Zeit University from Qalandiya refugee camp, Mays Abu Ghosh, 22, is a writer and student activist who has worked to publicize the struggles of Palestinian political prisoners and Palestinian refugees. #FreePalestinianStudents https://samidoun.net/2020/01/palestinian-student-mays-abu-ghosh-speaks-out-on-israeli-abuse-and-torture-under-interrogation/

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

Click to tweet: “The occupation knows that students are the most active and dynamic sector of society – especially at a time when political parties are less and less effective.” #FreePalestinianStudents https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestinian-students-arrests-israel-universities-west-bank

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

Click to tweet: We join together to call for action and support for Palestinian students behind bars. #FreePalestinianStudents https://freepalestinianstudents.org

Click to tweet: Palestinian students are not only learning and expanding their knowledge as the next generation of Palestinians struggling for liberation – they are on the front lines of struggle against colonial imprisonment. #FreePalestinianStudents https://samidoun.net/2020/04/freedom-for-all-palestinian-students-youth-on-the-front-lines-of-struggle/