(09.05.2024)
There were again pro-Palestinian protests at universities in Amsterdam and Utrecht overnight.
Archiv: Schulen / Hochschulen / Schüler / Schülerinnen / Studierende / schools / students / pupils
Video: Amsterdam riot police strike Gaza protestors as university occupation broken up
(08.95.2024)
Police in Amsterdam began breaking up the occupation of University of Amsterdam buildings in the city center on Wednesday. The Binnengasthuis and other university buildings were squatted a day earlier by hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had marched there from the university’s Roeterseiland campus on Tuesday afternoon.
Police make arrests, break up pro-Palestinian demonstration camp at University of Amsterdam
(07.05.2024)
Some 125 activists were arrested as police broke up a pro-Palestinian demonstration camp at the University of Amsterdam in the early hours of Tuesday, as protests that have roiled campuses in the United States spread into Europe.
Pro-Palestinian protests spread across European universities
(07.05.2024)
Demonstrations have taken place in Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam and Belgium, where students have set up encampments and called for a ceasefire in Gaza. Violent clashes erupted in Amsterdam and authorities said at least 125 people were detained. In Berlin, students formed a human chain to protect their camp while police detained several people. The protests are in response to Israel‘s bombardment of Gaza.
Polizei räumt Protestcamp an FU Berlin
(07.05.2024)
Berlins Regierender Bürgermeister Kai Wegner (CDU) hat die FU-Besetzung durch pro-palästinensische Aktivisten verurteilt. „Wir dürfen auch an den Hochschulen nicht wegschauen, wenn antisemitische Parolen und Judenhass an den Universitäten verbreitet werden“, sagte der CDU-Politiker am Dienstag. Er sei der Universität für ihr Vorgehen sehr dankbar: „Ich finde dieses konsequente Vorgehen völlig richtig.“
Auch Wissenschaftssenatorin Ina Czyborra (SPD) verurteilte die Besetzung des FU-Hofes scharf.
Pro-Palestinian protests sweep Europe
German police broke up a protest by between sixty and eighty pro-Palestinian activists who had occupied a courtyard on Freie Universität Berlin’s campus on Tuesday, May 7.
“An occupation is not acceptable on the FU Berlin campus,” university president Guenter Ziegler said.
More than 2,100 arrested at anti-Israel protests nationwide as police clear college encampments
– The initial arrests sparked a movement on college campuses across the country, including at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and the University of California, Los Angeles.
– More than 2,100 protesters have been arrested at colleges and universities in recent weeks, including students, faculty, and outside agitators.
Debunking three myths about pro-Palestine student protests in the US
Middle East Eye examines three of the most pervasive myths that have sought to discredit the pro-Palestine movement on campuses
Australian student protests show US campus divisions over Gaza war are going global
n the past 10 days, pro-Palestinian protest camps have appeared at seven universities around Australia – from Melbourne and Sydney in the country’s southeast, to Adelaide in its center, and Perth along the western coast.
They were erected in solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli siege in Gaza and student protesters in the United States.
And it’s not just Australia.
Police remove pro-Palestinian student protesters from Paris‘s Sciences Po university
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal‘s office said such protests would be dealt with using „total rigour“, adding that 23 university sites had been „evacuated“ on Thursday.
I‘m a student who was arrested at a Columbia protest. I am not a hero, nor am I a villain.
Students in dorms craned their necks and shakily stretched their iPhones out windows to observe the impending attack.
We clung tighter to one another as they approached us, and seized us like rag dolls and slammed us into the hallowed ground of brick and concrete. But unlike rag dolls, we bleed, we crack, we bruise, we feel.
Encampment raid at NYU, hunger strike at Princeton as campus battles rage across US: Live updates
Arrests piled up at several colleges, 14 Princeton University students launched a hunger strike, and police raided an NYU encampment Friday in the latest battles on college campuses that have pitted university officials against their own students over the war in Gaza.
If you can’t join the encampment but are looking for other ways to support, consider these options!
America‘s new generation of student protesters is giving hope to Palestinians
We raise our hats out of respect for them, as these protests in the universities and streets of the western world and the Global South keep the flame of hope burning in the souls of our people who long for freedom and justice.
These protests indicate profound, radical changes that separate an ageing American generation that blindly supports Israel and a new generation that promotes justice in Palestine and demands an end to the Israeli occupation and to the war on Gaza.
They represent the future of America and its bright face, the emergence of which we have long awaited.
UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment Press Release
For over seven hours, zionist aggressors hurled gas canisters, sprayed pepper spray, and threw fireworks and bricks into our encampment. They broke our barriers repeatedly, clearly in an attempt to kill our community.
Campus safety left within minutes, external security the university hired for “backup” watched, filmed, and laughed on the side as the immediate danger inflicted upon us escalated. Law enforcement simply stood at the edge of the lawn and refused to budge as we screamed for their help. The only means of protection we had was each other. WE KEEP EACH OTHER SAFE.
UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment Press Release
For over seven hours, zionist aggressors hurled gas canisters, sprayed pepper spray, and threw fireworks and bricks into our encampment. They broke our barriers repeatedly, clearly in an attempt to kill our community.
Campus safety left within minutes, external security the university hired for “backup” watched, filmed, and laughed on the side as the immediate danger inflicted upon us escalated. Law enforcement simply stood at the edge of the lawn and refused to budge as we screamed for their help. The only means of protection we had was each other. WE KEEP EACH OTHER SAFE.
Despite the danger, we refused to engage standing by the principles of our encampment—self defense. For all the school’s pretense of student safety, we have experienced an unprecedented amount of violence and hatred while they stood by. The university’s hypocrisy all too apparent, as signs of this escalation were reported, documented, and indicated early on. The zionist attacks, their use of chemical weaponry, their hatred, their destruction, are but a microcosm of the genocide in Gaza. The university would rather see us dead than divest.
NOTICE: As the night progresses, we have received word from someone arrested inside of Hamilton that NYPD stormed the building and proceeded to tackle and body slam protesters, and attacked them with batons, shields, and sound grenades. We ask all Columbia affiliates in proximity to NYPD to continue recording whatever they can.
We have put up the most glorious fight. We did not allow the movement to end with a false deal from Columbia.
Keep all eyes on your comrades, mobilize to Columbia. If you are free, come to protect the encampment.
Student protesters at #UTAustin are being hit with pepper spray as they attempt to push police and state troopers off campus.
c/o Peter Holley, Texas Monthly
Statement in solidarity with student protests for Gaza
We, the undersigned organizations, stand in solidarity with the students nationwide and globally who are bravely protesting in encampments and otherwise to condemn Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza–actions which human rights organizations, a federal U.S. court, and the International Court of Justice have said “plausibly” constitute genocide.
(,,,)
In solidarity,
350.org US
18 Million Rising
198 methods
Adalah Justice Project
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
AF3IRM
Afghans For A Better Tomorrow
Alliance of Baptists
American Baptist Churches USA
American Friends Service Committee
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
American Muslim Bar Association
American Muslims for Palestine (AMP)
Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action)
Arab American Civic Council
Arab American Institute
Asian American Advocacy Fund
Better to Speak
Beyt Tikkun: A Synagogue without Walls
Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU)
Blue Future
Borderlands for Equity
Borderlands Resource Initiative
Brooklyn For Peace
CAIR Action
CAIR California
CAIR Minnesota
CAIR Oklahoma
CAIR-WA
California Coalition for Women Prisoners
Cameroon American Council
Carceral Tech Resistance Network
Ceasefire Democrats
Ceasefire Now NJ
Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Protest Law & Litigation @ Partnership for Civil Justice Fund
Chicago Area Peace Action
Chicago Faith Coalition on Middle East Policy
Christians for a Free Palestine
Civic Ark
Civil Liberties Defense Center
Clockshop
CommonDefense.us
Communities United for Status & Protection (CUSP)
Council on American-Islamic Relations
CWA-News Guild Local 38010
Defending Rights & Dissent
Delaware Democratic Socialists of America
Delawareans for Palestinian Human Rights
Detention Watch Network
Disciples Palestine Israel Network
Diverse & Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM)
Doctors Against Genocide
Dream Defenders
Dutch Scholars for Palestine
Eindhoven Students 4 Palestine
En Conjunto
Faith for Black Lives
Faith in Texas
Fellowship of Reconciliation
Fight for the Future
For All
Freedom Oklahoma
Freedom To Thrive
Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA)
Future Coalition
Gen-Z for Change
Gender Justice Action and Gender Justice
Get Free
Global Campaign to Reclaim People‘s Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power & Stop Impunity
Green Mountain Solidarity With Palestine
Green New Deal Network
Greenpeace USA
Hawai‘i for Palestine
Health Justice Commons
Highlander Research and Education Center
Hindus for Human Rights
Historians for Peace and Democracy
IfNotNow Movement
IfNotNow New Jersey
Immigrant Defense Project
Immigrant Justice Network
Immigrants Act Now
Indiana Center for Middle East Peace
Institute for Policy Studies New Internationalism Project
Interfaith Ceasefire
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
International Mayan League
InterReligious Task Force on Central America
Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)
Islamophobia Studies Center
Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Jewish Voice for Peace
Jewish Voice for Peace-Hawai’i
Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ)
Just Foreign Policy
Justice Democrats
Just Futures Law
Justice for All
Kairos USA
Libyan American Alliance
LittleSis / Public Accountability Initiative
Living Water Inclusive Catholic Community
Long Island Progressive Coalition
Make the Road Nevada
Malaya Georgia
Massachusetts Peace Action
Mennonite Action
Mennonite Action WA
Migrant Roots Media
Minnesota Peace Project
Mondoweiss
Movement for Black Lives
MPower Change Action Fund
MSA West
Muslim Advocates
Muslim Community Network
Muslim Counterpublics Lab
Muslim Power Building Project
Muslims for Just Futures
Muslims for Progressive Values
National Arab American Women’s Association (NAAWA)
National Iranian American Council
National Lawyers Guild
National Lawyers Guild – St. Louis Chapter
National Partnership for New Americans
New Hampshire Veterans for Peace
New York City Veterans For Peace
The New Justice Project Minnesota
North American Students of Cooperation
No Separate Justice
The Oakland Institute
Office of Peace, Justice, and Ecological Integrity/Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth
Our Revolution
Palestine American League
Palestine Legal
Palestinian Feminist Collective
Partners for Palestine
Pax Christi New York State
Pax Christi USA
Pediatricians for Palestine
Poverty Project at the Institute for Policy Studies
Presbyterian Church (USA), Office of Public Witness
Presbyterian Peace Fellowship
Progressive Democrats of America (PDA)
Project ANAR
Project South
Peace Action
Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice
Reparation Education Project
Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment
Rising Majority
RootsAction Education Fund
The Social Justice Center
Sound Vision
Starr King School for the Ministry
Students and Faculty for Justice in Palestine at the University of Hawai’i (SFJP)
Sunrise Movement
Sur Legal Collaborative
TakeAction Minnesota
Tech Justice Law Project
The Gathering for Justice
The Hague Peace Projects
Transnational Institute
The Uncommitted National Movement
UndocuBlack Network
Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Church of the Larger Fellowship
Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice
Unitarian Universalist Mass Action
Unitarian Universalist Peace Ministry Network
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
Unitarian Universalist Young Adults for Climate Justice (UUYACJ)
Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East
United Church of Christ Palestine Israel Network
United Methodists for Kairos Response (UMKR)
Until Freedom
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
Veterans For Peace
We Are All America
The Whatcom Peace and Justice Center
Wind of the Spirit Immigrant Resource Center
Working Families Party
World BEYOND War
Young Democrats of America Black Caucus
Young Democrats of America Environmental Caucus
Youth Leadership Institute
185 Human Rights Groups Demand Universities End Crackdowns on Gaza Protests
A coalition of 185 social justice and religious groups published an open letter Monday expressing support for the campus protest encampments sweeping the country in opposition to Israel’s siege of Gaza, and calling on university administrators to end the brutal crackdowns of the student-led demonstrations.
Nation’s largest nurses union stands in solidarity with campus protesters facing crackdowns and arrests
Nurses represented by National Nurses United (NNU), the country’s largest union of registered nurses, stand in solidarity with student and faculty protesters at campuses across the United States facing a violent crackdown for speaking out against the mass killings and public health catastrophe in Gaza. Amid the on-going Israeli military campaign that has killed, injured, and displaced tens of thousands of Gazan civilians, nurses remain steadfast in our belief in the human rights to health, safety, free speech, collective action, and protest. NNU has called for and still calls for a permanent and lasting ceasefire in Gaza and the swift delivery of humanitarian aid in Palestine.
Jewish Council: University encampments are no threat to Jews
Last week students in Australia established encampments at their universities in solidarity with Palestinians. These join the dozens of solidarity camps established across the US and elsewhere in recent weeks. Like their peers, Australian students are calling on their institutions to end relationships with weapons companies that are enabling Israeli war crimes, and urging our government to sanction Israel and cut military ties.
The Jewish Council of Australia strongly rejects the claims that these protests are a threat to Jewish students and staff.
Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza in the last 200 days. In the past week, new evidence of mass unmarked civilian graves was uncovered. Palestinians in the West Bank are also suffering at the hands of the Israeli military and violent settlers. Students are right to peacefully protest these mounting crimes and should not be silenced by their institutions or by other organisations that erroneously claim these protests are antisemitic.
Sydney students join wave of US university encampments
(25.04.2024)
Students have set up camp at Australia’s University of Sydney on the back of pro-Palestinian encampments and demonstrations that have swept through United States institutions and led to mass arrests and cancelled classes, writes Daniella White for The Sydney Morning Herald.
Crackdowns at 3 college protests lead to nearly 200 arrests
Nearly 200 protesters were arrested Saturday at Northeastern University, Arizona State University and Indiana University, according to officials, as colleges across the country struggle to quell growing pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments on campus.
JVP BOSTON AND IFNOTNOW BOSTON STAND WITH NORTHEASTERN STUDENT ACTIVISTS AND DENOUNCE FALSE CLAIMS OF ANTISEMITISM
As a new anti-war movement has sprung on campuses across the country, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Boston and IfNotNow Boston support the student encampment movement in solidarity with Palestine across this city and the country. We denounce Northeastern University’s discipline of student activists and Boston Police Department’s arrest of peaceful protesters. We denounce false claims from the Northeastern administration that protests were “infiltrated by professional organizers” who used “virulent antisemitic slurs.”
Video posted to X by GBH News reporter Tori Bedford clearly shows the incident in question, in which a pro-Israel counter-protester, holding an Israeli flag, attempts to be disruptive by yelling “kill the Jews.” He goes on to accuse student protesters of being funded by the Qatari government and imply that they are not US citizens. By using this event to slander their own students, the Northeastern University administration is acting in incredible bad faith. They owe pro-Palestine student organizers an apology.
Police raid encampments, arrest over 100 people during protests at Northeastern University
Mass State Police said 102 people were arrested and face trespassing and disorderly conduct charges and are being transported to the Suffolk County House of Correction to be booked and processed.
Northeastern University released a statement on Saturday morning through social media saying approximately 100 people had been detained and the ones without a university ID were arrested.
“We Are Not Afraid of You”: Voices from Inside the Growing Anti-War Movement Sweeping US Campuses
On this special episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with folks across the country that are taking part in the exploding movement of anti-war encampments and occupations sweeping across US campuses in solidarity with Palestine.
APRIL 22 Letter from Jewish Faculty Against the Weaponization of Antisemitism
Dear President Mills and Provost Dopico,
We write this public letter as Jewish faculty at NYU requesting that the university administration discontinue its practice of relying on specious charges of antisemitism when adjudicating matters of student conduct and faculty discipline concerning pro-Palestinian speech and protest. This matter has particular urgency as just this morning a coalition of NYU students has established an encampment in solidarity with Gaza, and already NYU has taken steps to limit and constrain their speech and mobility.
We reject outright the administration’s insistence that criticism of Israeli state policy is inherently antisemitic and so constitutes discrimination. There is nothing Jewish about supporting Israel’s destruction of Gaza or about the US bombs that have killed more than 10,000 children there, nor is it antisemitic to denounce Israeli state violence or to protest American imperialism. Moreover, by adopting a cheapened idea of “antisemitic” hate speech defined by the very same right wing political figures who have given energy and legitimacy to neo-fascist groups across the US and to the McCarthyite anti-intellectual assault on higher education unfolding today, the university degrades the discourse of antisemitism itself. With this in mind, we request that the university reverse all punitive Office of Equal Opportunity decisions in disciplinary proceedings that have depended upon the erroneous equation of anti-Israel speech with antisemitism.
The Ghost of the 1968 Antiwar Movement Has Returned
Those young demonstrators had come of age seeing continual — and effective — protests during the civil rights movement and national mourning after the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. A year earlier King staked out his opposition to the war, saying that while he wasn’t attempting “to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue,” he wanted to underscore his belief “that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money, like some demonic, destructive suction tube.” He said he was “compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and attack it as such.”
Secret meetings, social chatter: How Columbia students sparked a nationwide revolt
“We talked about what it was like to recruit people and join, and what it meant to stand in solidarity together, and what it would look like if these camps started popping up everywhere,” said Soph Askanase, 21-year-old junior at Barnard College who was arrested at Columbia.
What followed was the start of what historians now call one of the most consequential student uprisings the nation has seen in recent times.
Israelism Is a Powerful Indictment of Pro-Apartheid Indoctrination
(June 22, 2023)
After the movie was over, Simone Zimmerman and director Eric Axelman sat on the edge of the stage and took questions from the audience. One of the questions was from a Palestinian-American man who asked about how to respond to people who took offense when phrases like “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing” were used to describe the treatment of Palestinians.
In his response, Axelman pointed out that recent polling shows that more than a third of American Jews under the age of forty agree with the statement, “Israel is an apartheid state.” The message is starting to get through. It’s about time.
Israelism
Two young American Jews – Simone Zimmerman and Eitan – are raised to defend the state of Israel at all costs. Eitan joins the Israeli military. Simone supports Israel on ‘the other battlefield:’ America’s college campuses. When they witness Israel‘s mistreatment of the Palestinian people with their own eyes, they are horrified and heartbroken.
They join the movement of young American Jews battling the old guard over Israel’s centrality in American Judaism, and demanding freedom for the Palestinian people. Their stories reveal a generational divide in the American Jewish community as more young Jews question the narratives their synagogues and Hebrew school teachers fed them as children.
Were young American Jews lied to about Israel? A new documentary says yes
(February 24, 2023)
From directors Eric Axelman and Sam Eilertsen, Israelism follows two millennial Jews — Simone Zimmerman, co-founder of IfNotNow and Eitan, an American former IDF soldier who didn’t want to use his last name in the documentary — as they talk about becoming disenchanted with the Israel they were taught to defend and believe in growing up within the American Jewish system. (Filmmakers Axelman and Eilertsen are also millennial Jews, and in a director’s statement, Axelman wrote about their own, similar arc with Israel.)
Campus protests spread around the country
From coast to coast, calls to end the Israel-Hamas war are spreading on college campuses.
Pro-Palestinian Campus Encampments Spread Nationwide Amid Mass Arrests at Columbia, NYU & Yale
Palestinian solidarity protests and encampments are appearing on college campuses from Massachusetts to California to protest Israel‘s attacks on Gaza and to call for divestment from Israeli apartheid. This week, police have raided encampments and arrested students at Yale and New York University. Palestinian American scholar and New York University professor Helga Tawil-Souri describes forming a faculty buffer to protect students, negotiating with police, and the ensuing crackdown that led to over 100 arrests Monday night. Uptown in New York City, the encampment at Columbia University is entering its seventh day despite mass arrests of protesters last week.
12 suspended Columbia students reinstated just days after anti-Israel protest, as lawyer vows to take ‘fascist’ school to NY Supreme Court
“Speech, no matter how unpopular it may be, is the essence of academia. Protest against Zionism in Israel is pure protected speech. … If Jewish students are made uncomfortable by it, f— them!” Cohen, who was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home, told the Village Sun.
“Speech is supposed to make you uncomfortable. This is not lighting candles and kumbaya. … All speech is protected unless the imminent intent is to commit violence — like shouting ‘Fire!’ in a crowded movie theater,” he added. (…)
“I got f—ing suspended from Columbia 50 years ago. I got thrown out of Columbia after a week for anti-war protesting,” he lamented.
“Columbia is fascist,” he said.
120 antiwar protesters arrested at NYU; Calif. students form barricade
At the University of Minnesota, police moved in during early-morning hours at the request of the institution, arrested nine people and cleared tents in a grassy expanse in front of the main library. That followed the arrest of 120 protesters at New York University on Monday night, according to the New York Police Department.
The developments at those two schools mirrored scenes at Columbia University on Thursday and Yale University on Monday. On the West Coast, California State Polytechnic University at Humboldt went into a lockdown after student protesters barricaded themselves inside a building.
It began with defiance at Columbia. Now students nationwide are upping their Gaza war protests
What began last week when Columbia University students refused to end their protest against Israel’s war with Hamas had turned into a much larger movement by Tuesday as students across the nation set up encampments, occupied buildings and ignored demands to leave.
Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | Flash Update #148
– Since 1 March, 30 per cent of humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza and 10 per cent of missions to southern Gaza were denied access by the Israeli authorities.
– Nearly 40 per cent of school buildings in Gaza have been directly hit, according to an updated assessment of satellite imagery by the Education Cluster.
Israeli students chase their history teacher & yell at him „cancer“ & „son of a whore“ b/c he dared to humanize Gazan & Palestinian civilians Meir Baruchin was fired from his job & jailed in solitary confinement last November for this, but was just reinstated by a labour court
Israeli teacher posted on social media, expressing sympathy with Gazans. School fired him and made a police complaint. He was jailed for a few days & media depicted him as Hamas supporter. After charges were dropped, court ordered to take him back to work. This was his welcome:
INTERVIEW: Destruction, displacement, and grief. Senior UNRWA official reflects on ‘unprecedented’ conflict in Gaza
Our teachers are trained to provide education in a way that helps the children follow the values of the United Nations, including peace and tolerance, and no hatred and no racism.
Other accusations concern the involvement of our staff in the fighting, and their political affiliation with certain armed groups in Gaza.
These misinformation campaigns weaken the efforts of what is currently the largest humanitarian organization in the Gaza Strip, catering to the needs of at least 1.4 million people who are in our shelters.
UN News: Although your agency has come under much more scrutiny since 7 October, it has existed since the early days of the UN.
Juliette Touma: Yes, we‘re one of the oldest United Nations agencies, and the biggest in Gaza, where we’ve been operating for seven decades.
Our largest programme involves providing education but sadly, since 7 October, we have had to close all of our schools, and turn many of them into shelters.
My middle school @UNRWA in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip blown apart by demolition explosives.
Young prisoner, Marah, is fighting medical negligence to get her high school diploma
(December 23, 2015)
Marah Bakeer, a student in her last year of high school (Tawjihi), insisted to her friend, Asma’a Elkhatib, to join her family to take lunch at her home. At first, Asma’a refused her friend’s invitation, but after many attempts of convincing her, she had eventually accepted Marah’s request.
On the way home … The two 16-year old girls, wearing their dark blue uniform, and school bags on their backs, left the bus at the entrance of Beit Hannina town, and were excitedly talking about their school life and the crucial year they have to pass; to move to college and build up their future.
In the midst of their talk, the Israeli forces stopped them at the main road of the town. One of the soldiers came close to them, and fired twelve bullets towards Marah’s small body, while he was shouting “Subversive .. subversive!”.
Asma’a freaked out and had no idea about what to do or where to go when she saw her friend Marah covered with blood, crying, while the soldiers were only watching her bleeding.
Marah was left bleeding till she lost consciousness; then the soldiers moved her to the Israeli hospital Hadassah to receive medical treatment, while her friend Asma’a was finally able to escape. This was on 10.12.2015 at noon.
(…)
Israel claims that “Marah”, who lives in a family of five members, was holding a knife in her hand to stab one of the soldiers who were in the place of the accident. However, their story was denied by Asma’a and a group of students who were in the place at the time of the incident. Also, a video tape was published and widely shared via social media showing Marah screaming and crying with no knife near her.
The mother refused the accusations made against her daughter that she tried to stab an Israeli soldier; and said during our phone call with her: “My daughter is dreaming of getting the university certificate; to make us proud of her, and all the Israeli accusations are totally refused”
Statement by the Secretary-General – on Gaza
I am deeply shocked that two UNRWA schools were struck in less than 24 hours in Gaza. Dozens of people – many women and children – were killed and injured as they were seeking safety in United Nations premises.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians are seeking shelter at United Nations facilities throughout Gaza due to the intensified fighting. I reaffirm that our premises are inviolable.
This war is having a staggering and unacceptable number of civilian casualties, including women and children, every day. This must stop.
I reiterate my call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
I am deeply shocked that 2 @UNRWA schools were struck in less than 24 hours in Gaza. Dozens of people – many women & children – were killed & injured as they were seeking safety in @UN premises. I reaffirm that our premises are inviolable.
Every minute, every hour, the situation is getting worse in #Gaza Thousands of people- including our colleagues- are being killed from bombs & strikes. Soon, more will die from consequences of the imposed siege. A ceasefire is critical to save what is left of our humanity.
BREAKING: Israeli air raids have hit the Al-Fakhoora School, run by UNRWA, in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. LIVE updates:
Gaza: Lack of fuel threatening to shut down ‘entire’ humanitarian operation
In a wide-ranging briefing to journalists in Geneva, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini reiterated calls for a ceasefire and addressed misinformation targeting the agency, including claims that aid is being diverted.
He said he has also received reports of UN schools being used “for military purposes”.
During the briefing, Mr. Lazzarini said he had received reports that Gaza was under a communications blackout due to the lack of fuel.
He repeated his earlier warning that UNRWA is running out of fuel, thus putting lifesaving support to 2.2 million in Gaza at risk. Everything from aid delivery, to water supply, to even accessing cash from ATM machines will be impacted. (…)
While the agency received a “tiny shipment” of fuel – half a truck – on Wednesday, he said “it was delivered with conditionalities”. The fuel can only be used for trucks collecting goods arriving at the Rafah crossing with Egypt, meaning that water desalination plants, sewage pumping systems or bakeries will go without.
“As from yesterday 70 per cent of the population just in the south has no access anymore to clean water, and as of today, we have raw sewage starting to flow in the streets,” he said.