General Union of Palestinian Students

Notable individuals

Several Palestinian politicians, writers, journalists and militants have been members or leaders of the GUPS. They include Yasser Arafat, Hanan Ashrawi, Faisal Husseini, Walid Khalidi, Mahmoud Hamshari, Afif Safieh, Elias Sanbar, Ahmad Abdel Rahman and many others.

Nearing the end of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War Yasser Arafat moved to Cairo in order to re-enrol in the University of King Fuad I, later known as Cairo University, studying civil engineering and serving as chairman of the GUPS from 1952 until the year of his graduation of 1956 as well as the chairman of the Federation of Palestinian Students, both considered important positions in Palestinian politics. Abu Iyad served as Secretary General of GUPS whilst studying at Al Azhar University before being deported by Egyptian secret police to Gaza in 1983 during the last year of his studies. The pair along with Khaled Yashruti, the then head of GUPS in Beirut, and others later formed Fatah in 1959.

Political significance

Drawing from the work of scholar Laurie Brand, the political scientist Khalil Shikaki summarizes the significance of the GUPS as follows:In the absence of a political 'center,' the Palestine Student Union (later GUPS) served as the major political forum in which Palestinian feelings and aspirations could be expressed, and in which independent Palestinian mobilization and organizing activities could be carried out. In 1959, long before the famous 1974 Rabat summit resolution recognizing PLO representation of the Palestinians, GUPS concluded an agreement with Jordanian student unions designating Palestinian students from the West Bank as the constituency of GUPS alone. During GUPS's second conference in Gaza in 1962, resolutions were approved calling for the establishment of a Palestinian entity, a Palestinian army, and a Palestinian liberation organization.From 1979 to 1989, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was "conducting a sprawling international terrorism investigation" into GUPS. It was not an investigation of criminal conduct, but intelligence monitoring.

References

References

1. "GUPS at San Francisco State University".
2. Shikaki, Khalil. (1991). "Review of Palestinians in the Arab World: Institution Building and the Search for State". [[International Journal of Middle East Studies]].
3. Mogannam, Jennifer. (March 2008). "Identity and Expression: The Palestinian Struggle in San Francisco". This Week in Palestine.
4. "Mr. Ahmad Abdel Rahman (1943-2019)". Yasser Arafat Foundation.
5. Aburish, Saïd K.. (2004). "Arafat: from defender to dictator".
6. (2024-05-22). "US surveillance of pro-Palestinian speech has a direct line to McCarthyism". The Guardian.
7. Cole, David. (September 2010). "Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security (Large Print 16pt)". ReadHowYouWant.com.