"Sama represents other Palestinian student prisoners — her freedom is also tied to their freedom."

Sama Safi, a 20-year-old Palestinian-American, was detained from her family's home before dawn on June 2nd — one of four Birzeit University students taken that same night, alongside Joulan Abu Awwad, Natalie Abu Diya, and Leila Nael Khalil. They are being charged for allegedly belonging to a student group.

The four are being held in Damon Prison, where the majority of Palestinian women in Israeli detention are kept. Sama lives with Familial Mediterranean Fever, an autoinflammatory disease. Without treatment, doctors warn her organs could begin to fail.

Members of Congress, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, have called for her release. Sama's aunt Leila Farsakh spoke with Drop Site's Maysa Mustafa about the family's fight for her release, and how they are using Sama's American passport to advocate for more than just her.

_________

➡️ FOLLOW Drop Site News for more independent news on war and politics

Stay INFORMED on our latest reporting: DropSiteNews.com

WATCH our weekly live show, streaming every TUESDAY morning, on Substack, YouTube, and Facebook

LISTEN to the show as a podcast on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts.

SUBSCRIBE to Drop Site News. Our reporting is FREE, and we are committed to keeping it that way.
To help support our work, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription, it’s what fuels our reporting: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

DONATE to support Drop Site's independent journalism. Help us continue our work with a tax-deductible contribution at donate.dropsitenews.com.

To make our reporting as accessible and shareable as possible, we are on a variety of social media platforms. Follow Drop Site for more, and don’t forget to share with others, that’s the easiest way to help support what we do:

Drop Site News: https://twitter.com/dropsitenews
Ryan Grim: https://twitter.com/ryangrim
Jeremy Scahill: https://twitter.com/jeremyscahill

Substack: https://www.dropsitenews.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dropsitenews
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dropsitenews
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/dropsitenews.com

WhatsApp channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb6VmnSHrDZWpCqcrS2e

Discord: We've launched a semi-private Discord server and are opening it up to our paid subscribers. Think of Discord as a sophisticated digital gathering space to interact with others in the developing Drop Site community.
Update to a paid subscription: https://dropsitenews.com/subscribe

Don’t like social media? We’ve got you covered. We launched a daily weekday newsletter, Drop Site Daily, which compiles the top stories our team is tracking throughout the day on social media, into one convenient, place: https://www.dropsitenews.com/s/drop-site-daily