As pro-Palestinian protests spread on university campuses across the United States, leading to hundreds of arrests, young Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip have told CBS News they appreciate the support from America. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, has condemned the demonstrations as antisemitic and even compared them to rallies held in Germany almost 100 years ago, as the Nazi party rose to power on a wave of anti-Jewish hate.
Fida Afifi had been attending Al Aqsa University in Gaza City before the Palestinian territory’s Hamas rulers sparked the ongoing war with their bloody Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel. The war forced her to flee her home to Rafah in southern Gaza, along with some 1.5 million other Palestinians.
She told CBS News on Wednesday that she welcomed the support for the Palestinian people’s cause from young people almost 6,000 miles away in the U.S.