Want to help students in Gaza?

“It’s worse than “Gaza is being starved and destroyed, and no one cares.” It’s that hundreds of millions *do* care and are powerless to stop it. We need a world where that can never happen, where the masses actually have political power.”

— Eman Abdelhadi

In the early hours of Monday morning, Anas Al Sharif alongside, Mohammad Qreiqei, Ibrahim Dhaher, Mo’men Aleiwaa and Mohammad Nofal, who comprise the entire Aljazeera news team in Gaza City, were targeted in their tent outside Al-Shifa Hospital and killed by an Israeli airstrike.

We are heartbroken.

Anas & colleagues attend a funeral in 2024

In the past few months, Israel’s Arabic army spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, intensified his attacks on Gaza’s remaining journalists, calling Al-Sharif’s reporting “propaganda” and accusing him of “intellectual terrorism.“

Anas Al Sharif was born in 1996.

He was 4 when the Second Intifada began in 2000. He was 11 when Israel imposed the blockade on Gaza in 2007. He was 12 during Cast Lead in 2008–2009.

He was 18 during the 2014 assault on Gaza. He was 29 when Israel assassinated him in 2025.

He knew full well that he was a target. “Israel” repeatedly threatened and slandered him. He was killed less than an hour after posting this message on his X/Twitter account.

“For the first time, Al Jazeera couldn’t show their colleagues’ funeral.

Israel had killed them all.”

— Abier Khatib

It is abnormal for journalists to be killed in wars.

Yet more have been killed in Gaza (242) than in the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War (+ Cambodia and Laos), the Yugoslav wars, and the Afghanistan war, combined.

In Iraq, 285 journalists were killed in 22 years. That’s 13 per year, compared to about 13 per month in Gaza.

As the descendants of colonised people this carnage is visceral. This is what they did to our families, but there were no cameras to record it.

Media Diversified closed for good in 2022. For 10 years we gave a platform to journalists of colour.

In those 10 years we also built an email list, accrued thousands of subscribers on here and published a large body of work by students and academics.

It would be a dereliction of our duty as global citizens if we didn’t utilise it now and ask for your help.

We can’t save Anas or the other 240+ journalists that Israel has killed, but we can try and help other writers, journalists, poets, and students of any discipline.

Since 7 October 2023, the Visa Application Centre (VAC) in Gaza has been closed, with UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) citing safety concerns for staff and applicants.

While there is a biometrics deferral protocol put in place in 2023, when students have requested to apply for a deferral, requests have been ignored.

Samah, 25, Israa, 31 Abdallah, 27, Majd, 24, Khulud, 28 and thirty-five other students have secured places at UK universities. They deserve better than an arbitrary and faceless bureaucracy getting in the way of their aspirations.

We ask you to please urge your MPs and ministers of state to facilitate a biometric visa deferral and open a route of safe passage for 40+ incoming students from Gaza so they can take up their places of study in September.

Bureaucracy shouldn’t stop any student who is pursuing an education.

EMAIL YOUR MP

According to Visualising Palestine, by August 2024, 9773 Palestinian students and 409 educational staff had been killed.

But more than that, we want you to forward this email/article or even write your own and send it to the institutions you are connected to.

Imagine that they then send out their own email to their list of subscribers. And those recipients then forward it to theirs.

A call or WhatsApp message is even better than email. Always include the link! Nobody likes to work harder than they have to. We have learned from over 10 years experience of campaigning that having to search for the link puts people off!

Only 2,194 people have sent emails to their MPs and ministers of state out of a population of 69 million so far.

We can do better.

Copy this link to sign https://newscord.org/action/gaza-students (Newscord has made it easy for you)

Copy and paste this email template https://docs.google.com/document/d/14S23OHv-vhzWKM8GWertXFka324efYKp6sP09_Oak8c/edit?usp=drivesdk (Outspoken Press have made it easy for you.)

Or Click Here

There is also an open call for UK students to sign this open letter to Keir Starmer, David Lammy, and Yvette Cooper: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSemC4niZbni3xoU-gS1fPdShhJdNT4HCd74E6cTpmYbfNcp3w/viewform

MPs and ministers of state shouldn’t be able to say they were unaware of these 40 students. (as well as another 40 waiting for scholarship decisions and private funding)

The thing with politicians is, they rarely miss an opportunity to maximise their chances of being elected in the next election. Both major parties are massively down in the polls. There couldn’t be a better time for them to do something their constituents actually want.

Add in your email that any advocacy that results in tangible outcomes for people in Gaza will secure them your vote in the next election.

We’ve been posting about Gaza and Sudan on Instagram and X/Twitter and Bluesky for over a year. But lots of you aren’t on social media. Simply put, it’s just not enough.

Gaza’s life expectancy dropped from 75.5 years to 40.6 years between October 2023 and September 2024.

Life expectancy over time in Gaza, along with four other countries that experienced wars in recent decades.

There isn’t a moment to lose.

“We can not give up. We have a duty as citizens of “democratic” states to resist and demand an end to complicity. Direct actions have proven to be effective time and time again.

Be brave, bold and creative. Use your skills, privileges, and connections.”

— Ghada Sasa

We are very aware that genocide is not just a matter of individuals. People in both Gaza and Sudan are deliberately being annihilated by Israel, the UAE and the RSF in whole or part.

It didn’t just start with famine, even though we know that seems easier to rally around.