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A failed Palestinian suicide bomber delivered a speech to students at the University of California, Berkeley — earning raucous applause from the crowd during her video appearance for a “Palestinian Political Prisoners Day” event.
Israa Jaabis, who was released from an Israeli jail in 2023 as part of a prisoner exchange related to the October 7 attacks, spoke to students Monday at the university’s law school for the “teach-in” organized by UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine.
In 2015, she was accused of trying to ignite a gas tank in Jerusalem after she was stopped by an Israeli police officer. A subsequent explosion severely disfigured Jaabis and burned the officer.
Israeli authorities said she shouted “allahu akbar” before the explosion and that she had handwritten notes showing support for “Palestinian martyrs.” She was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2017.
The officer burned in the attack called it an incident of terrorism. “You always hear of terrorist attacks, and suddenly I am in one, boom, that’s how it is,” he said at the time.
During her speech Monday, Jaabis told the students that their attendance at the event “makes us hopeful that there remains some humanity.”
“That there is someone to support us in the future, delivering our message to the international community, and amplifying our call to liberate Palestinian prisoners, as well as to liberate all societies from servitude and from bigotry, which produces populations complicit in perpetrating inhumane laws,” she added.
Video posted by the pro-Palestine Berkeley student group — which describes itself as fighting “for Palestinian liberation until Palestine is liberated from the River to the Sea” — featured blurry footage of students erupting in applause during the speech.
The “teach-in” was billed as as an event featuring “experiences of Palestinian torture survivors and prisoners of conscience.”
A school spokesperson said that as “a public university, UC Berkeley has a non-discretionary obligation to abide by and support the First Amendment in a completely content neutral manner.”
“We do not have the legal ability to sanction or censor Constitutionally protected expression,” the spokesperson added.
The California Post contacted the UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine and Jaabis for comment.
The Trump administration is currently investigating UC Berkeley over allegations of antisemitism, leading the university to turn over a list of 160 faculty members and students last year as part of the probe.
The schools previously faced criticism for creating “Jewish-free zones” in 2022.
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