When police cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment at George Washington University earlier this year, officers doused Moataz Salim’s hands and arms so thoroughly in pepper spray, he says, they burned for days.
Salim, a graduate student studying clinical psychology who says he has lost more than 160 relatives in Gaza, wasn’t among the dozens of people arrested that day in May. But after the raid, Salim decided to take a leave of absence from his education – in part, to focus on his activism, but also so he might avoid disciplinary repercussions from his university.
Salim, 27, said he’s spent the summer speaking out alongside members of Congress and attending protests, mostly recently during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial visit to Washington.
