Displaced Palestinians from Gaza thank US students for their support with graffiti
Abu Yusef writes, on the side of the tent in which the Israeli offensive has forced him to survive, his gratitude to the students who They demonstrate in fifty American universities to call for an end to the war in Gaza and express solidarity with the Palestinian people.
“Thank you students of solidarity with Gaza, your message has arrived. Thank you Columbia students. Thank you students,” Abu Yusef writes in English with a green spray on the fabric of his precarious home in Rafah, a tent provided by the Kuwait Red Crescent and whose entrance he has covered with sewn sacks. Abu Yusef is one of the displaced people from the Al Quds camp who wanted to thank the American student movement for the support of his tent fabric.
“Today we cannot write any messages in our homes because there are no houses left standing in the entire Gaza Strip, only tents to express our gratitude in them“says Abu Yusef, originally from Beit Hanun, in the extreme north of this strip of land punished by Israel for more than 200 days.
Student protests against the war in Gaza have spread over the weekend to dozens of universities across the United States, leading to hundreds of arrests and confrontations between protesters and law enforcement.
The demonstrations, which began at Columbia University in New York and spread to campuses in dozens of states, including Georgia, Indiana, California and Texas, They have in common the rejection of US policy towards Israel and the request that educational centers break relations with the Israeli government and private sector.
“The idea is to support the students who have embraced our cause, the students of the American University of Columbia and other universities around the world who have assumed their responsibility in the face of the just Palestinian question,” emphasizes Abu Yusef. “Thank you, Universities of the United States” and “Thank you, Columbia students.“, are two other graffiti that can be read – green on tent fabric – in other parts of the camp.
“Thank you Universities of the United States,” Salah Skaik, a resident of a store set up with plastic, wood, nails and cardboard, repeats in English to EFE, on one side of which this graffiti reads.
Originally from Gaza City, Skaik continues in Arabic: “This motto expresses gratitude to the United States and, specifically, to the students of the universities who in recent days have shown solidarity with us.” in the Gaza Strip.
In 206 days of offensive, the Israeli Army has killed more than 34,400 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and in the southern city of Rafah, 1.2 million displaced people have sought refuge living in precarious conditions alongside the 200,000 inhabitants originally from this town, which Israel threatens to invade if it does not reach an immediate truce agreement with Hamas. The Palestinian University of Birzeit, located in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, has also expressed gratitude for the solidarity with the Palestinian cause shown by thousands of university students.
“All the best from Birzet University to all the students who are leading the unprecedented movement at American universities calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza committed by the Western-backed Israeli occupation,” the think tank wrote in its X profile. Birzeit University is located a few kilometers from Ramallah – the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority – and many of the historical Palestinian leaders studied there.
“These demonstrations have spread beyond the United States to the United Kingdom, France and other European universities; “all calling for a boycott of Israel and to hold the occupation accountable for its crimes.”wrote the University, which, like Abu Yusef and Skaik, hopes that this student movement will achieve effective pressure on American leaders in favor of “justice and freedom for Palestine.”
