US campus protests of Israeli ‘genocide’ offer hope to students from Gaza

An internally displaced Palestinian child walks past a tent with a thank you message dedicated to students at Columbia University in New York, at the Rafah refugee camp on April 27, 2024. Protests erupted at Columbia and quickly spread through college campuses across the United States as students call on universities to divest from companies that provide arms to Israel [Haitham Imad/EPA-EFE]

On April 21, Hala Sharaf’s heart was heavy as she left her family in Gaza to resume her studies in Cairo, Egypt.

After surviving Israel’s devastating war on the besieged enclave, she feared the world had forgotten about the plight of her people.