Student Union
Palestinian Students Recount Feelings of ‘Survivor’s Guilt’
Young Palestinians living and studying abroad say they are tied to social media with a sense of helplessness as they follow the repercussions from the most recent violence back home.
“You kind of get, like, survivor's guilt. You know, like, ‘Why is it not me that that's happening to?’ and ‘What, like, what can I do to help these people?’ ” described Mona Salah, a law student at Bristol University in the United Kingdom.
Protests broke out in early May after the Israeli Supreme Court sanctioned the eviction of Palestinian families from Sheik Jarrah, a historically Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
Settler groups contend that Jews owned the land before the creation of Israel in 1948. The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights says Sheik Jarrah is on occupied Palestinian territory, making the ruling a violation of international law.
Hamas launched rocket attacks into Israel following subsequent clashes between Palestinians and Israel police outside Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, prompting a strong defensive response by Israeli Defense Forces. The worst fighting in the region since 2014 left 248 people dead in Gaza and 13 in Israel.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the rounds Wednesday in neighboring Jordan — heavily populated by Palestinians whose families came as refugees before 1967 — to buttress a cease-fire brokered last week by the U.S. and Egypt.
University students and young Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank say the latest exchange of hostilities has made already bad conditions worse.
“You know, when you're in survival mode, you're not really so worried about your education, you're worried about living, you're worried about what your next meal is going to be,” said Jude Elrayes, a student at Ryerson University in Canada. During the 11 days of fighting, she said, she checked in with her family in Gaza often, to make sure they got through the day.
“These messages are not easy to read, especially knowing that that could have easily been you. You know, that could have easily been me back there. But I was so lucky and blessed enough to be here, which is something that brings on a lot of survivor's guilt,” Elrayes continued.
Travel blocked
Israeli and Egyptian blockades have prevented thousands of students from leaving Gaza to pursue a higher education — even when they have visas from host countries and support from educational institutions abroad, according to the website Gaza Unlocked, run by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), as well as other human rights organizations.
Economic hardship leading to an inability to pay tuition fees led to a 70% dropout rate for students in graduate programs in the Gaza Strip in 2019, based on a 2020 study by Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza.
Palestinian students who live outside the West Bank and Gaza Strip said they feel fortunate to have passports that permit them to study abroad, often acquired through parents who have long lived abroad. Most Palestinians do not have official passports recognized by other governments.
“I'm lucky to have a Swedish passport, because my dad lived there for like 20 years or something. So we were granted nationality,” Salah said. “And so under that basis, I would be allowed to enter [Israel]. But if I solely had my Jordanian passport, I wouldn't be allowed to enter, especially with the security checks they do.”
Salah said her mother, born in Nazareth, has been stuck at checkpoints and border crossings for up to 18 hours when returning to the West Bank from Amman, Jordan, where they live now.
Glued to social media
Many Palestinians report being tethered to social media to connect with the Palestinian territories and share information with non-Palestinian students.
“That's why so many of us are glued to our phones right now, as Palestinians, because we're trying to do the best that we can,” Elrayes said, reporting that her screen time on Instagram has averaged close to eight hours a day recently.
Elrayes created a video that amassed more than 30,000 views between Instagram and Tik Tok sharing information on the most recent fighting.
Celebrity voices lending support and solidarity are welcomed, they said. Model Bella Hadid shared images of her grandparents’ wedding in Nazareth and of a Los Angeles rally for the Palestinians.
“Palestine’s never had this much attention in Western media and that’s largely due to social media. Western media favors the state’s narrative, and all Palestinians have are our cameras,” said Aya Ghanameh, a student at the Rhode Island School of Design.
However, speaking out may come with costs.
Hadid deleted her pro-Palestinian posts and actor Mark Ruffalo deleted a post that called the occupation a “genocide,” after much blowback.
“I think it is really, really difficult to be pro-Palestine with an audience. Because a lot of people conflate the idea of like, you know, Israel with purely Judaism, and just the establishment of a Jewish state. And they fail to see that being pro-Palestine is not being against that. It's being against that at the expense of our people,” Salah said.
Palestinians studying abroad have turned to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS), as well, a Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments and economic sanctions against Israel.
Salah said she believes the boycott can be overwhelming because “Israeli products have infiltrated our lives so much to the point where you literally have to boycott everything to boycott successfully.”
Some Jewish students in the U.S. see the boycott as reverse discrimination.
"We oppose the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement and its efforts to isolate and demonize the only Jewish democratic state in the world," said Nathan Edelman, as a senator with the Illinois Student Government in September 2020.
"Past BDS referendums and resolutions have only increased hate, hostility and mistrust on our campus."
Western universities not always responsive
Palestinians studying outside the West Bank and Gaza said they found it difficult to connect with others about their identity, and their universities' responses to recent events have been sparse.
“Everyone kind of has this experience that the university sends out an email about a current political issue and has mental health awareness and stuff like that, and you know, who to reach out to, if you're troubled by what's going on and stuff like that.” Salah shared.
“But suddenly, because this is such a, you know, controversial topic, we didn't get any of the, for the Palestinian cause, which is really concerning,” she said.
Students said it can be challenging to find people they can share their heritage with.
“I'm very proud to be Palestinian. But it's very sad that up until, you know, about a year ago, I wasn't comfortable just being like, ‘Oh, I'm Palestinian,’ because a lot of people prior to these two weeks, didn't even know what Palestine was,” Elrayes explained.
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Pro-Palestinian protests spread on US university campuses
U.S. university campuses are seeing pro-Palestinian protests daily. Students are demonstrating against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and demanding that humanitarian aid be allowed to flow into the territory. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
US police clash with students who demand colleges cut financial ties to Israel
Police tangled with student demonstrators in the U.S. states of Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
At the University of Texas at Austin, hundreds of local and state police — including some on horseback and holding batons — clashed with protesters, pushing them off the campus lawn and at one point sending some tumbling into the street. At least 20 demonstrators were taken into custody at the request of university officials and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, according to the state Department of Public Safety.
A photographer covering the demonstration for Fox 7 Austin was arrested after being caught in a push-and-pull between law enforcement and students, the station confirmed. A longtime Texas journalist was knocked down in the mayhem and could be seen bleeding before police helped him to emergency medical staff who bandaged his head.
At the University of Southern California, police got into a back-and-forth tugging match with protesters over tents, removing several before falling back. At the northern end of California, students were barricaded inside a building for a third day at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. The school shut down campus through the weekend and made classes virtual.
Harvard University in Massachusetts had sought to stay ahead of protests this week by limiting access to Harvard Yard and requiring permission for tents and tables. That didn't stop protesters from setting up a camp with 14 tents Wednesday following a rally against the university's suspension of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee.
Students protesting the Israel-Hamas war are demanding schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies enabling its monthslong conflict. Dozens have been arrested on charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct. Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus.
Columbia University averted another confrontation between students and police earlier in the day. The situation there remained tense, with campus officials saying it would continue talks with protesters for another 48 hours.
On a visit to campus, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, called on Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign "if she cannot bring order to this chaos."
"If this is not contained quickly and if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, there is an appropriate time for the National Guard," he said.
Shafik had set a midnight Tuesday deadline to reach an agreement on clearing an encampment, but the school extended negotiations, saying it was making "important progress."
On Wednesday evening, a Columbia spokesperson said rumors that the university had threatened to bring in the National Guard were unfounded. "Our focus is to restore order, and if we can get there through dialogue, we will," said Ben Chang, Columbia's vice president for communications.
Columbia graduate student Omer Lubaton Granot, who put up pictures of Israeli hostages near the encampment, said he wanted to remind people that there were more than 100 hostages still being held by Hamas.
"I see all the people behind me advocating for human rights," he said. "I don't think they have one word to say about the fact that people their age, that were kidnapped from their homes or from a music festival in Israel, are held by a terror organization."
Harvard law student Tala Alfoqaha, who is Palestinian, said she and other protesters want more transparency from the university.
"My hope is that the Harvard administration listens to what its students have been asking for all year, which is divestment, disclosure and dropping any sort of charges against students," she said.
Columbia encampment inspires others
Police first tried to clear the encampment at Columbia last week, when they arrested more than 100 protesters. The move backfired, acting as an inspiration for other students across the country to set up similar encampments and motivating protesters at Columbia to regroup.
On Wednesday about 60 tents remained at the Columbia encampment, which appeared calm. Security remained tight around campus, with identification required and police setting up metal barricades.
Columbia said it had agreed with protest representatives that only students would remain at the encampment and they would make it welcoming, banning discriminatory or harassing language.
On the University of Minnesota campus, a few dozen students rallied a day after nine protesters were arrested when police took down an encampment in front of the library. U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, whose daughter was among the demonstrators arrested at Columbia last week, attended a protest later in the day.
A group of more than 80 professors and assistant professors signed a letter Wednesday calling on the university's president and other administrators to drop any charges and to allow future encampments without what they described as police retaliation.
They wrote that they were "horrified that the administration would permit such a clear violation of our students' rights to freely speak out against genocide and ongoing occupation of Palestine."
Netanyahu encourages police response
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on U.S. college campuses in a video statement released Wednesday, saying the response of several university presidents has been "shameful" and calling on state, local and federal officials to intervene.
Students at some protests were hiding their identities and declined to identify themselves to reporters, saying they feared retribution. At an encampment of about 40 tents at the heart of the University of Michigan's campus in Ann Arbor, almost every student wore a mask, which was handed to them when they entered.
The upwelling of demonstrations has left universities struggling to balance campus safety with free speech rights. Many long tolerated the protests, but are now doling out more heavy-handed discipline, citing safety concerns.
At New York University this week, police said 133 protesters were taken into custody and all had been released with summonses to appear in court on disorderly conduct charges. More than 40 protesters were arrested Monday at an encampment at Yale University.
Columbia University demonstrators in talks with administration officials
Officials at Columbia University were continuing talks Wednesday with student demonstrators from the Gaza Solidarity Encampment as the protest reaches a full week.
At 9:41 p.m. Tuesday, university President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik sent an email to the Columbia community setting a midnight deadline for an agreement to be reached about dismantling the encampment and dispersing the protesters.
“I very much hope these discussions are successful,” she wrote. “If they are not, we will have to consider alternative options for clearing the West Lawn and restoring calm to campus so that students can complete the term and graduate.”
As midnight passed, Columbia University Apartheid Divest posted a statement on X saying, “We refuse to concede to cowardly threats and blatant intimidation by university administration. We will continue to peacefully protest.”
The statement also said the university had threatened to call the National Guard. But after visiting the university earlier in the week, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said Tuesday she had no plans to deploy the National Guard.
As midnight approached on Tuesday, a student organizer announced that the deadline had been extended to 8 a.m. Wednesday.
At 4:09 a.m., the Office of the President sent an email saying the discussion deadline would be extended for 48 hours, given the constructive dialogue, and the university would report back on progress.
The email announced that leaders of the student encampment had agreed to remove a significant number of tents, get non-Columbia affiliates to leave the encampment and comply with New York Fire Department requirements. They also agreed to ensure that the encampment is “welcome to all” and to prohibit “discriminatory or harassing language.”
This development comes nearly a week after more than 100 students were arrested at the school on April 18, after Shafik authorized police to clear away protesters. Some of the students received suspension notices from the school.
Columbia’s action prompted an onslaught of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at other universities and responses from faculty and politicians.
Students at other campuses, such as Yale, Stanford and New York University, have also rallied around the Palestinian cause, calling for their universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel and for a cease-fire in Gaza. Many also have put up tent encampments on their campuses. About 150 students and faculty were arrested at New York University Monday night.
Columbia also announced Tuesday morning that classes on the Morningside main campus, where the protests are taking place, will be offered in a hybrid format for the remainder of the spring semester. The last day of classes is April 29.
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Paper: International students faced extra pandemic challenges
Astrobites, which describes itself as "a daily astrophysical literature journal written by graduate students in astronomy since 2010," focuses on the challenges international students faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It examines a paper published in the Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education entitled The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on International Students in a Public University in the United States: Academic and Non-academic Challenges.
Read the Astrobites article here. (April 2024)
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15 cheapest US universities for international students
Yahoo!Finance has compiled a list of the 15 cheapest U.S. universities for international students.
Among them: Arizona State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Michigan State University.
Read the list here. (March 2024)
