NOVA FCSH students demand government intervention so Palestinian students can enter the faculty

The Student Association of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (AEFCSH) and the Faculty's students publicly express their solidarity with the young Palestinian Tarek Al-Farra who, having enrolled and paid his tuition fees to study for a master's degree at FCSH, is unable to obtain a visa to study in Portugal.

With the Portuguese representation office in Gaza closed and the nearest Portuguese embassy in Ramallah, in the West Bank, an inaccessible region that is not issuing visas to Gazan students, Tarek Al-Farra is unable to leave his war to come to Lisbon.

The FCSH student association says, in a statement sent to our newsroom, that the situation has already been communicated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has not received "any response" from either this body or the Government.

"The FCSH management is aware of the situation and has communicated it to both the DGES and the University Rector, as these are the means of communication with the Government," the document adds.

The students are demanding that NOVA University Lisbon "ensure all procedures to unblock this process and pressure the Government to fulfill its obligations."

The young people demand that the Portuguese Government “resolve this process and take a stance on the ongoing massacre that is consistent with the defense of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, which, in its Article 7, calls for the dissolution of political-military blocs and the defense of the self-determination of peoples.”

The war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip was triggered by Hamas after it attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping around 250.

Israel responded with an offensive that has lasted nearly 22 months and threatens to starve the Palestinian population to death.