Free Palestinian Students

Hands off Students Supporting Palestine: Against the repression of the Popular University of Brussels!

On 7 May 2024, dozens of youth occupied a university building at ULB (Brussels, Belgium) and inaugurated the Popular University of Brussels. This encampment followed months of mobilization from students and activists, with the demand of an academic boycott of zionist institutions.

For nearly 2 months, the Walid Daqqa building, honoring the memory of the Palestinian freedom fighter, scholar, and martyr, had been a place for political discussions, conferences, events, demonstrations, conviviality, and activism. The student movement in Brussels organized at Walid Daqqa building and several other places, and developed a strong political position against normalization with the zionist entity.

During this time, the encampment has been criminalized both by the university authorities and the zionist movement in Belgium.

During several demonstrations, police repression took place. At dawn on 25 June, the encampment was violently evicted by police, who stormed the building, attacking people inside while they slept and identifying everyone.

A few weeks later, nearly 100 people have been summoned for judicial hearings in relation to the encampment.

This judicial procedure is an attempt to intimidate people and discourage their just cause. The summon letters mention that people will be interrogated on the basis of “being part of a group advocating racial segregation or discrimination.”

We refuse and condemn the criminalization of the student movement. Youth worldwide have been protesting against genocide and colonization, and have used the right of their freedom of expression to advocate for an academic boycott. The repression of their activism must not be tolerated.

From Brussels to Gaza:
Student Intifada!
Solidarity until liberation!
HANDS OFF STUDENTS!

Free Mahmoud Issa!

Mahmoud Issa was born in the town of Anata, northeast of Jerusalem, on May 21, 1968. He studied at the College of Sharia and Fundamentals of Religion at Al-Quds University, worked for the “Voice of Truth and Freedom” newspaper and joined the Islamic Bloc at the University. He became involved in military action with the outbreak of the Stone Intifada, joining the Al-Qassam Brigades,
the military wing of Hamas, and establishing its
first military cell in al-Quds.

His group, “Special Unit 101,” carried out several military operations, including capturing an occupation sergeant on 13 December 1992. They demanded that the occupation authorities free Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in exchange.

The occupation refused their demands and classified the operation as “the most dangerous capture operation in the history of the Palestinian resistance.”

In the following days, the Zionist regime attempted to exile 415 Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials and members to Marj al-Zuhour in southern Lebanon. In 1993, at the age of 25, Issa was detained and tortured by the occupation in the infamous “Al-Maskobiyya” center but refused to confess to anything. After his “trial” he faced solitary confinement in Ramle prison and then was transferred and isolated again in Bir al-Saba and Asqalan prisons. He is sentenced to three life sentences plus 49 years in Zionist jails.

In 1996 Issa and a group of prisoners dug a 10 meter underground tunnel in order to escape, but the occupation authorities discovered the tunnel and extended his sentence by 6 years. Issa was then transferred on average every 6 months from one prison to another in an attempt to undermine his resolve.

In 2002, during the Al-Aqsa Intifada, the imprisoned Issa was brought back to interrogation, and his elderly mother was brought in for interrogation in order to pressure him, after her house was raided by the Israeli intelligence and army. More years were added to his sentence on charges of communicating with the Hamas leadership abroad and participating in organizing resistance youth.

Mahmoud Issa was then ordered to isolation by occupation prison authorities, where he was held for over 11 years consecutively. He is one of the few prisoners who spent such a major percentage of his detention in isolation, as the occupation ranks him among the most “dangerous” prisoners as an influential leader. His release is a demand of the Palestinian resistance in a prisoner exchange, and the Zionist regime has refused to release him in past exchanges, alongside fellow leaders Hassan Salameh, Ahmad Sa’adat, Marwan Barghouti, Abbas al-Sayyed, and Ibrahim Hamed.

After the Al-Karama hunger strike in 2012, in which thousands of prisoners joined a mass strike with a major demand being the release of imprisoned leaders from isolation, the occupation was forced to return him to the general prison population. The occupation prevented him from completing his university education at the Hebrew University, along with his fellow prisoners. Yet the years of imprisonment did not discourage the him from learning and writing over six books and short story compilations, including “Resistance Between Theory and Practice,” “Saber’s Story,” and “Quranic Reflections.”

Mahmoud Issa was denied the ability to complete his degree at Al-Quds University because he was wanted by the occupation and, since then, has been imprisoned in occupation jails. He is a prominent leader of the prisoners’ movement, and an example of the student prisoners, who include not only those serving in administrative detention but also those with lengthy sentences for their involvement and leadership in struggle.

Mahmoud Issa (Abu al-Bara’a) remains a leader of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement after 31 years behind bars. Free Mahmoud Issa and all Palestinian prisoners!

Free Dunia Shtaya!

On 24 July 2024, Zionist occupation forces invaded the village of Salim, near Nablus, and attacked the home of An-Najah National University student Dunia Shtaya, abducting her. Dunia is a student of religion in the Faculty of Shari’ah at An-Najah, in Nablus.

Just one day before she was arrested, Dunia posted to her social media in support of the prisoners: “Oh Allah, we entrust to you Shaimaa, Halima, Ibtihal, Ola, Aya, Duha, and all the male and female prisoners. Oh Allah, release them.”

Freedom for Dunia Shtaya and all Palestinian students!

Free Amr Nizar Kayed!

On 11 September 2024, Zionist occupation forces abducted Amr Nizar Kayed from his home in Sebastia, near Nablus. Amr is a student at Birzeit University. He is the brother of Layan Kayed, also a Birzeit student who has been imprisoned without charge or trial since April 2024.

Amr was ordered to four months in administrative detention -- imprisonment without charge or trial, indefinitely renewable -- on 19 September 2024, just like his sister.

Both Amr and Layan are student activists at Birzeit University and part of the Progressive Democratic Student Pole, the largest left-wing organization on campus.

Free Amr Kayed and all Palestinian students from Zionist, imperialist and PA jails!