<div style="text-align: justify; "><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Dozens of Iraqi university students and professors rallied Thursday at a Baghdad campus in solidarity with Gaza and pro-Palestinian protests at US universities, AFP correspondents said.</span><br></b></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iraqi Education Minister Naeem Al-Aboudi earlier this week expressed his support for the “free voices in universities” around the world, and called for protests in solidarity with the embattled Gaza Strip.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Students at Al-Nahrain University waved the Palestinian and Iraqi flags.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“With all that is happening to our people in Gaza... of course I must be among the first to come to raise our voice,” student Aya Kader, 20, said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“It is very positive to see the Palestinian flag being waved at American universities,” she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Weeks-long pro-Palestinian protests that have swept campuses across the United States have “encouraged us,” she added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Students and professors also carried banners calling for a “free Palestine,” with some wearing the keffiyeh scarf that has long been a symbol of the Palestinian cause.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We are here to tell them to stop the killing and to thank the free voices around the world,” said Professor Jomaa Salman, head of the engineering faculty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“If the storming of Columbia University had happened in another country, especially in a third world country, they would have moved heaven on earth.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Iraqi embassy in Washington called Wednesday for “restraint, calm, respect for human rights and peaceful expression” as unrest over Israel’s war in Gaza simmered on US campuses.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iraq does not recognize Israel while all Iraqi political factions support the Palestinian people.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2019, popular protests broke out in Iraq against the ruling establishment, and a security crackdown left more than 600 people killed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The United States is Israel’s largest military supplier.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Student protesters on American campuses say they are expressing solidarity with Palestinians in the war-devastated Gaza Strip, prompting large-scale police arrests.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Gaza war broke out after the unprecedented October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel which resulted in the death of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel retaliated with a massive offensive that has killed at least 34,596 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Militants also seized hostages during the attack, estimating that 129 of them remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead. - AFP&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd/fas</div>