Rania R.a. Abushamala
28 May 2024•Update: 28 May 2024
JERUSALEM
Dozens of Palestinian students demonstrated at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on Tuesday against Israel’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip.
Waving the Palestinian flag, protesters raised banners denouncing the Israeli onslaught and voicing support for Palestinians, according to an Anadolu reporter.
The protest was organized by the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, known as Hadash, the Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported.
Israeli students organized a rival protest on campus, KAN said.
Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu opposition party, condemned the protest.
“It is inconceivable that the Hebrew University allows a disgraceful demonstration of terror supporters, waving Palestinian flags in the heart of the university campus while our heroic soldiers are fighting on the battlefield,” he said on X.
Lieberman, a former defense minister, called on the university officials to immediately suspend the demonstrators.
“If they choose not to take action against them, we will take all the steps available to us in the Knesset to delay all their budgets,” he threatened.
On March 12, the university suspended Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian due to her anti-war stance on Gaza, according to KAN.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Palestinian enclave since Oct. 7, 2023 following a Hamas attack despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in the enclave.
Nearly 36,100 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority being women and children, and over 81,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Nearly eight months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel stands accused of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice, which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala in Istanbul
