The University of California, Berkeley’s law school recently hosted a Palestinian Political Prisoners Day event, featuring a notable message from a former prisoner convicted of a failed suicide car bombing attempt in Israel. The event was organized by the UC Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine.
On their Instagram platform, the student group shared a video from Israa Jaabis, who was convicted of attempting a car bombing and spent eight years in an Israeli prison. In the video, Jaabis expressed her gratitude to the students, acknowledging their support for her cause.
“I want to express my gratitude to the students for their attentiveness and for listening with their hearts,” Jaabis said, as indicated by the English subtitles accompanying the video.
She added, “Their presence alone makes us feel, as liberated Palestinian prisoners, that we are not forgotten and that there are people who care about us.”
Israa Jaabis, who endured severe burns and an eight-year prison term in Israel, shared her experiences at the third International Al-Aqsa Women’s Conference in Istanbul, Turkey, on November 7, 2025. (Photo: Muhammed Enes Yildirim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Jaabis’s incarceration followed an attempted car bombing in 2015, which took place during a traffic stop near a location frequented by Israeli soldiers. Both Jaabis and an Israeli officer, Moshe Chen, sustained serious burns in the attack.
While in prison, Jaabis made headlines for demanding cosmetic surgery on her badly scarred face. She was released in November 2023 in a prisoner exchange as the Israeli government attempted to free hostages taken by Hamas militants in the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack.
Palestinian prisoner Israa Jaabis arrives at her home in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem Nov. 26, 2023, after being released from Israeli jails in a prisoner exchange with Hamas. (Oren Ziv/AFP)
“There are those who are in solidarity with us, those who support us and do not abandon us,” Jaabis said in the video.
“Your attendance — in particular as law students — 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 societies from servitude and from bigotry which produces populations complicit in perpetrating inhumane laws.”
Critics on X blasted both the event organizers and UC Berkeley.
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“Berkeley being a leftist cesspool is not something that should surprise you,” said one X user.
“Muslims must be laughing at the insane stupidity of the ‘enlightened’ useful idiots here in the West,” said another.
“This stuff keeps me up at night. I don’t understand how the world just rewrites morality to fit it’s political agenda,” said another.
A spokesperson for UC Berkeley Law said the school’s hands were tied.
Pro-Palestinian protesters set up a tent encampment during a demonstration in front of Sproul Hall on the UC Berkeley campus in Berkeley, Calif., on April 22, 2024. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
“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,” Alex Shapiro, assistant dean of communications, said. “We do not have the legal ability to sanction or censor constitutionally protected expression.
“However, as UC Berkeley has repeatedly informed the student body, if any campus community member feels threatened, they are encouraged to contact the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination. OPHD provides support to those harmed, investigates all allegations, and the campus takes appropriate steps following any findings.”
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