On 7 April, thousands participated in demonstrations and protest strikes from Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco, through Pakistan, Mauritania, to Europe and the US, as part of the international solidarity movement’s call for a global general strike to stop the war of annihilation in Gaza.
This international day of action was also organized in response to Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, during which he and Trump once again called on the Palestinians under siege in Gaza to “leave voluntarily” — in accordance with Trump’s transfer plan.
It is no coincidence that the international strike was scheduled to coincide with World Health Day. Millions around the world were shocked by the execution of 15 Red Crescent paramedics in Rafah on 23 March by Israeli occupation forces. The criminal murder of rescue teams on their way to provide aid to the countless wounded is part of an ongoing massacre of medical teams in the Gaza Strip. This is now escalating, as part of the escalation of the war of annihilation and occupation by the Israeli government of death, backed by Trump.
A general protest strike was also declared in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, whose towns and cities are under murderous attack by the occupation forces. Students and teachers boycotted schools. Thousands demonstrated in Ramallah and other places in the West Bank. Despite the threats, repression and political persecution, solidarity actions and protests also took place within the Green Line, in Nazareth and today (Tuesday) also at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Protest overcomes attempted ban by university administration
The university administration tried to prevent the demonstration organized by the political groups of Palestinian students on campus under the title “strike”.
Initially, the administration requested that the demonstration not be held on the day of the general strike but the next day, claiming that it would not have enough security guards to protect the demonstration from violence. However, the administration then announced that it was postponing the demonstration to an unknown date. The announcement, which was sent to all students on campus, referred to “two demonstrations”, meaning both the demonstration against the war that was organized in advance in a transparent and democratic manner and received all permits, and the “counter-demonstration” by the right, which is a thuggish attempt to prevent any manifestation of solidarity with the Palestinian masses on campus. The administration claimed that the ban was due to “real fear of a violent outbreak”, without specifying whether this was concrete information in its possession or a general assessment, and without specifying who was threatening whom.
However, these statements are not without context. The anti-war demonstration was organized in a reality of daily incitement and political persecution on campus of those opposing the occupation, particularly Palestinian students, and therefore also under the shadow of a potential threat of physical attacks from far-right elements. The threat is not against “all sides” but against those who sought to protest against the continued bloodbath in Gaza — and these are precisely those whom the administration chose to silence. It is a political choice by the university administration to try to cancel the anti-war event, instead of taking the care to distance itself from elements that launched a campaign of incitement against it.
Impressively, the organizers of the Gaza solidarity demonstration insisted on holding the event without giving in to threats and anti-democratic dictates and managed to push back the administration, which was finally forced to accept the event. Despite all attempts to silence them, about 100 students demonstrated in a central location on campus, waving signs, chanting slogans, and demanding an end to the massacre and extermination in Gaza. The “counter-demonstration” led by far-right elements was much smaller.
Students from the Jerusalem branch of SSM also participated in the demonstration. Below is the text of the leaflet we distributed.
Organize for strike action and escalate the struggle against the war of extermination
Fight and demand the withdrawal of the army from Gaza and the West Bank, the liberation of all for all, the restoration of welfare and a life with dignity — no to decrees, damage to higher education and political persecution.
Our struggle must escalate. From the very first moment, the government of death arrogantly and systematically violated the ceasefire in Gaza, and returned to starvation and a complete siege on two million Palestinians in the Strip. The military offensive in the West Bank escalated with massacres and mass expulsions and the establishment of checkpoints as a measure of collective punishment.
But the youth, the students and the workers are not willing to be silent. Here in Jerusalem, the increase in house demolitions, along with the blockades at the Qalandiya crossing and the collective punishment of the residents of the city’s east, caused a heroic strike led by the residents of Kafr ʿAqab. The strike included schoolchildren, municipal workers, medical staff and drivers, and also managed to disrupt public transportation in Jerusalem.
This example shows our strength as students and especially as workers. The May 2021 honor strike was an example of how this can be implemented in a coordinated manner, even on both sides of the Green Line.
Shut down the campus!
Today’s demonstration proves that the persecution of Palestinian students and opponents of war by the police and university administration, including student arrests in the dormitories, threats against the organizers of the demonstrations, and an incitement campaign against Prof. Nadra Shalhoub-Kyvorkian, is unable to defeat the student protests that are resurfacing time and again.
Meanwhile, even within the Israeli protest movement for the hostages, more voices of criticism and opposition are being raised against the extreme right, which has already made it clear that it is prepared to kill even the Israeli hostages in order to implement its ethnic cleansing plan in Gaza. Against this backdrop, there is also more opposition to continuing the war.
But the president and rector of the Hebrew University are not only ignoring those voices. They are helping to silence them. They have joined the calls to shut down studies, but only if Netanyahu violates a High Court ruling — because continuing the war of annihilation is not a sufficient reason for them to strike! The leaders of the official student association are taking the same approach.
The way forward for building our struggle is to coordinate activity between the various campuses in the city and at the various universities in the country. In this way, we can promote both protest and solidarity, but also the organization of students, faculty members, and staff members. This can be done with the aim of exerting pressure from below on representatives in the student association and faculty organizations to strike on campus as part of a broad movement to stop the war and massacre, to free all for all, to stop the attacks on Palestinians in East Jerusalem, and to remove all occupation forces from Gaza and the West Bank.
Our suggestions for building a struggle:
- Organize joint student assemblies (including Zoom) between the various campuses in the city (including Bezalel), to discuss protest and strike measures, and to build an ongoing struggle plan at the national level, with escalation in steps around planned dates.
- Build solidarity collaboration with the struggles in the city, such as the struggle of the residents of Al-Bustan in Silwan against the Israeli regime’s expulsion plan, including organizing student delegations for demonstrations and solidarity visits.
- Also reach out to workers in the workplace, especially those who have recently gone on strike against the occupation’s collective punishment measures – in the municipality, on public transportation, in hospitals, and more.
We Say
- Stop the war of annihilation in Gaza and remove all occupation forces from the Strip. Stop the aggression of the army and settlers in the West Bank, remove all army forces from Lebanon and Syria, no to demonstrative attacks throughout the region and in Iran. Yes to the liberation of “all for all” now. No to population transfer, displacement and expulsion!
- End the aggression of the police, enough of the increasing political persecution under the auspices of the war and the trampling of freedom of expression and freedom of protest in universities. Demand that student unions, faculty organizations and all workers’ organizations act against nationalist witch hunts in workplaces and on campuses.
- Stop the expulsions and demolition of houses in East Jerusalem, in the 1948 territories and in the West Bank. Stop the prevention of building permits and the imposition of poverty on Palestinian Arab society. Enough of the epidemic of murder and organized crime gangs.
- Expropriate the resources of the capitalists, in favor of rebuilding the Strip, rehabilitation and living with dignity. Rehabilitate all the communities that were affected by the war, in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and also for the residents of the North and the residents of the Western Negev.
- Fight for a radical socialist solution. For the overthrow of the dictatorship of capitalist rule and occupation, imperialism and national oppression, and for equal rights to existence, self-determination and a life with dignity, well-being and personal security for all. Yes to the struggle to establish an independent, democratic, socialist, and equal Palestinian state, and to the struggle for democracy and socialist revolutionary change in Israel and the region.
- Yes to a struggle to overthrow the entire capitalist system, for socialist change and peace, including the aspiration to establish a framework for regional cooperation — confederal, democratic and socialist — on a voluntary and equal basis that will harness key resources, under democratic public ownership, for the common good, while ensuring equal rights for all nations and all minorities. This includes realizing a just solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees, through an agreement that will include recognition of the historical injustice of the 1948 Nakba and the right of refugees and displaced persons to return, while ensuring a life of prosperity and equality for all residents.
