‘We are with them’: Lebanon students rally for Gaza

Students take part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in the American University of Beirut on Apr. 30, 2024. (AFP)

• “We are Palestine’s neighbors. If we do not stand with them today, who will?” asked AUB student Zeina
• Some students also carried banners declaring solidarity with south Lebanon, where Israel and Hamas-ally Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily cross-border fire since October

BEIRUT: Hundreds of university students in Lebanon protested on Tuesday against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, inspired by recent pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have rocked US and European campuses, AFP correspondents said.
Dozens of students gathered at the prestigious American University of Beirut (AUB), some wearing the traditional Arab keffiyeh scarf that has long been a symbol of the Palestinian cause, an AFP photographer said.
“We are Palestine’s neighbors. If we do not stand with them today, who will?” asked AUB student Zeina, 23, declining to provide her surname.
“Around the world, students my age, from our generation, are the ones raising their voices,” she added.
The Gaza war began after Palestinian militant group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attacks on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Hamas also took some 250 hostages. Israel estimates that 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive, aimed at destroying Hamas, has killed at least 34,535 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The protests came as Hamas said it was considering a plan for a 40-day ceasefire and the release of scores of hostages in exchange for larger numbers of Palestinian prisoners.
Some students also carried banners declaring solidarity with south Lebanon, where Israel and Hamas-ally Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily cross-border fire since October.
The protests came as similar demonstrations swept universities across the United States, posing a challenge to administrators trying to balance free speech with complaints that the rallies have veered into anti-Semitism.
Footage of police in riot gear called in by universities to break up the rallies has circulated worldwide, recalling the protest movement that erupted during the Vietnam War.
“We renew our demand to stop the American-backed Israeli genocide against Palestinians and urgently demand to stop Zionist (Israeli) attacks” on south Lebanon, a female student told the crowd at AUB, praising “the global student movement supporting our people.”
At the nearby Lebanese American University, dozens of students gathered, raising Palestinian flags and burning an Israeli one.
“We want to convey a message to our people in Gaza: we are with them... We have not forgotten them,” Lara Qassem, 18, told AFP.
In Lebanon, at least 385 people have been killed in months of cross-border violence, mostly fighters but also including 73 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 11 soldiers and nine civilians have been killed in the country’s north.