The post shared by the student society was created by an account which goes by the name sbeih.jpg and appeared on Instagram shortly after the assassination of the Hamas leader.
Haniyeh, who celebrated October 7 as a “great victory”, was killed in Iran last month. While Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of carrying out the strike, Israel has not publicly claimed responsibility.
The post, which appeared on the society’s Instagram stories, for 24 hours read: “It seems Palestinians are only able to taste freedom once they’re killed”.
In addition to Haniyeh, the post pictured Al Jazeera journalists Rami El-Rafi, and Ismail El-Ghoul, who was an alleged member of Hamas. Both El-Rafi and El-Ghoul were killed in Gaza.
The post echos other photos and infographics shared on sbeih.jpg’s account that state “reject normalization. Support the resistance” and depict the notorious inverted triangle.
A separate post shared on the Palestinian Solidarity Society’s Instagram depicted Haniyeh’s widow leaning over the terror leader’s coffin.
In another post on the society's Instagram story, Haniyeh's wife was pictured over the terror leader's coffin (Instagram)[Missing Credit]
Essex Palestine Solidarity Society is a society affiliated with the student union. Since October 7, the society has used social media and “apartheid off campus” protests to call for a “student intifada” and demand the university boycotts Israel.
The society claims “all students are welcome” to engage with its activities, stating it does “not tolerate any form of disruption or hate speech with any underlying racist intentions.”
In April, the JC revealed that in 2019 propaganda from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was found at Essex University. The posters were stamped with their logo and stated, “We are all freedom fighters” and condemned “Zionism, fascism and capitalism”.
One post on Essex Palestine Solidarity Society's Instagram called for a "student intifada" (Instagram)[Missing Credit]
Responding to the recent posts about Haniyeh, the Union of Jewish Students said: “For over ten months, Jewish students have witnessed the celebration of Hamas, the glorification of its leaders as martyrs, and the attack they carried out on October 7 by fellow students on campus.
“Those who praise Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation responsible for the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, must be held to account by their universities. There must be swift and decisive consequences for such behaviour…We will not stand by as those who lead proscribed terror groups are memorialised.”
The university said it would not comment on the incident until it had investigated the posts.
The Palestine Solidarity Society and Essex Students’ Union did not respond to the JC’s request for comment.
