Law students host Palestinian terrorist released in Oct. 7 hostage-prisoner exchange at UC Berkeley

Students at the University of California, Berkeley, hosted a campus event on Monday featuring a convicted Palestinian terrorist who was released in a prisoner exchange following the October 7 Hamas massacre.

Israa Jaabis, who was convicted for a 2015 car bombing attack in Jerusalem, addressed students via video call during a “teach-in.” The event, organized by Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine and UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), was billed as a discussion on “Palestinian Political Prisoners Day,” highlighting what organizers described as the experiences of “torture survivors and prisoners of conscience.”

Video footage shared by SJP showed a packed classroom of students applauding Jaabis as she delivered remarks remotely. In her speech, she thanked attendees for their support, saying their presence “makes us hopeful that there remains some humanity,” and called on students to amplify advocacy for Palestinian prisoners on the international stage.

Jaabis was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2017 after being convicted of attempting to detonate a gas tank in her car near Ma’aleh Adumim in 2015. The explosion severely injured both Jaabis and Israeli police officer Moshe Chen, who had stopped her vehicle after noticing suspicious behavior. Israeli authorities said she shouted “Allahu Akbar” before the blast and recovered handwritten notes expressing support for “martyrs.”

She remained in prison until November 2023, when she was released in a deal for hostages taken during Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

Lawfare Project condemned the appearance, calling it an example of the “institutional normalization of terrorism” and arguing that “academic freedom does not include platforming terrorists.”

The student group behind the event, SJP, has previously stated its support for “Palestinian liberation from the river to the sea,” a phrase widely criticized by opponents as advocating for the elimination of Israel.

In response to the backlash, a UC Berkeley spokesperson told The New York Post in a statement, “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 incident comes as UC Berkeley faces ongoing scrutiny over allegations of antisemitism. The Trump administration previously launched an investigation into the university, prompting officials to provide a list of faculty and students as part of the probe.