US campus protests of Israeli ‘genocide’ offer hope to students from Gaza
Al Jazeera
Student protests in the United States have caught the attention of students from Gaza, giving them hope for the future.
On April 21, Hala Sharaf’s heart was heavy as she left her family in Gaza to resume her studies in Cairo, Egypt.
After surviving Israel’s devastating war on the besieged enclave, she feared the world had forgotten about the plight of her people.
Gaza has been under a relentless Israeli assault in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on Israeli communities and military outposts on October 7, in which 1,139 were killed and about 250 taken captive.
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 tire of the news cycle quickly when it covered death and destruction in Palestine, and she had never imagined that her American peers would risk their futures to call for a ceasefire and for an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
