On Oct. 8, the day after Hamas launched a large-scale surprise attack on southern Israel, Bayan Khatib posted a video on Instagram showing a skillet of shakshuka that she had prepared. The 23-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel, a student at Haifa’s Technion Institute and a self-confessed bad cook, proudly captioned the post, “Soon we’ll eat victory shakshuka,” alongside an emoji of a Palestinian flag.
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Construing her use of the flag and the word “victory” as signalling support for Hamas, Khatib’s fellow students widely circulated the post and demanded that she be punished — both by the university and by state authorities. The complaints were taken seriously: on Oct. 25, Khatib was arrested on suspicion of incitement and spent the night in jail, and on Nov. 9 she faced a disciplinary hearing at the university. She remains suspended from her studies while proceedings are ongoing.
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Palestinian students and faculty have long encountered racism, discrimination, and harassment at Israeli universities and colleges, but the weeks since October 7 have seen a significant spike in cases. A crackdown on freedom of expression by Israeli authorities — which is also impacting left-wing Israeli Jews — has created an atmosphere of fear that seeks to silence any dissent against the Israeli army’s ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
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According to the Union of Arab Students, approximately 160 Palestinians studying at Israeli universities and colleges have faced disciplinary proceedings since October 7, accused of supporting terror, supporting terrorist organizations, or incitement to terrorism.
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Read the full report by @frhmariam through the link in our bio. 📸: Yossi Zeliger/Flash90
