MENA universities join global protests over war in Gaza

Students and academic communities at universities and higher education institutions located in Middle East and North African (MENA) countries including Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Iran, Kuwait, Mauritania, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco have organised protests to demand an end to the Israeli military operation and rising death toll in Gaza while acknowledging the efforts of student protesters around the world.

The demonstrations come in the wake of massive pro-Palestine student protests across American, European and Asian university campuses which have called for a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas, for universities to stop investing in Israeli enterprises involved with the country’s military, and for an end to US military assistance to Israel.

Some of the US protests have been met with police operations to disband protest encampments at the request of university presidents, as reported by University World News.

As of 29 April, the death toll in Gaza following Israel’s military operation had passed 34,568 – including about 9,500 women and 14,500 children – and more than 77,765 people had been injured, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which also reported that 6,200 students and educational staff have been killed and 625,000 Palestinian students currently have no access to education.

More than 10,000 people were reported to be missing under rubble in Gaza, according to 30 April statement by the Palestinian Civil Defence.

Israel’s military operation was triggered by the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel, during which 1,200 people were killed and around 240 hostages were seized. UN experts also found “clear and convincing information” of acts of rape and sexualised torture being perpetrated during the attacks. UN experts have also found “credible evidence” of rape and sexual assault against Palestinian women and girls in detention since 7 October. According to OCHA an estimated 133 hostages remain in Gaza as of 1 May.

Solidarity protests

On 30 April students demonstrated at the American University of Beirut, the Lebanese American University, Lebanese International University and the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, in addition to two branches of the Beirut Arab University in the capital and in Tripoli (north).

The demonstrations were launched in response to calls from student councils and other student groups, including the Alliance of Free University Students (AFUS), for participation in solidarity protests with Gaza at all the country’s universities under the slogan: “In support of the legendary steadfastness of the people of Gaza.”

The AFUS said in a statement the solidarity protests direct “a salute to the students who rose up in American and European universities” in support of Gaza.

On the same day, universities in Jordan such as Al-Hussein Bin Talal University and the University of Jordan, also held demonstrations, as did the University of Shiraz in Iran.

The day before, 29 April, the National Union of Kuwaiti University Students and Faculty Association took a stand in solidarity with Palestine, sending a salute to “those who are steadfast in Palestine” and a salute to “those with free and courageous stances in Western universities”.

North Africa

According to a social media post on 26 April from the Department of Sociology Egyptology and Anthropology at the American University in Cairo (AUC), the association had collected 1,417 signatures to a petition (713 students, 50 faculty, 624 alumni and 30 staff) which accuses AUC of funding genocide and being complicit in “systemic violence” by Israel against Palestinians and calling for a list of demands to be met.

The petition, which comes in the wake of student protest action against the situation Gaza at the AUC earlier in April, calls for a university boycott of AXA Insurance and HP Inc and the termination of all contracts, barter agreements and sponsorship deals with any companies listed on the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestments list.

Axa Insurance and HP Inc have been contacted for comment.

The petition also demands full financial transparency moving forward, regarding the allocation of tuition fees; adherence by the university to the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestments Movement list with immediate effect; and a change to all future contracts with on-campus vendors to prohibit the supply of goods by companies supporting “Israeli apartheid”.

In Mauritania, the the National Union of Mauritanian students (UNEM) organised a strike in all higher education institutions on 29 April, in support of Arab, Islamic and international student efforts in denouncing the “ongoing massacres against the Palestinian people”.

The General Union for Tunisian Students (UGET) issued a statement on 26 April part of which said that American universities are currently witnessing “significant student protests” in rejection of American funding for the “genocidal war” committed “against the Palestinian people”.

UGET said that US students were “drawing inspiration from their remarkable history of war rejection, as witnessed during the Vietnam War” and stressed universities “significance” in “destroying colonial and Zionist projects and supporting national liberation movements”.

On 26 April, The National Union of Moroccan Students (Union Nationale des Etudiants du Maroc or UNEM) which belongs to Morocco’s largest Islamic movement, Al Adl Wal Ihsane (Justice and Charity) organised protests and marches in Al-Bayda, Ain Chock, El Jadida, Agadir, Tetouan, and Settat denounced Israeli “transgressions” committed “with unprecedented American and Western support and open and exposed official Arab complicity”.

The following day On 27 April, the Organisation of the Student Renaissance (OSR), a national association for university students in Morocco, also organised a protest.

The Arab and Maghreb Youth Student Front in a statement on 24 April called on all Arab and Maghreb student youth to support the protesting students in American universities and other countries who were facing “oppression, harassment, repercussions and unjust trials”.

West Bank universities

In Birzeit University, on the Israeli occupied West Bank, the university community gathered in support of people in the Gaza Strip, and to recognise the actions of the global student movement, according to a recent post on the university’s Facebook page.

An-Najah National University, also in the West Bank, organised a similar gathering on 28 April.
 
On 30 April, Palestine Technical University – Kadoorie (PTUK) also organised a sit-in protest to show support “for our people in the Gaza Strip who are subjected to genocide and displacement, in addition to the destruction of educational institutions since the
seventh of October last year”.