In an address to students at the City University of New York on Friday night, the incarcerated Black political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal praised the pro-Palestinian growing at U.S. colleges as being on the right side of history.

“It is a wonderful thing that you have decided not to be silent and decided to speak out against the repression that you see with your own eyes,†Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther, said while calling from Pennsylvania’s Mahanoy State prison. “You are part of something massive, and you are part of something that is on the right side of history.

“You’re against a colonial regime that steals the land from the people who are Indigenous to that area. I urge you to speak out against the terrorism that is afflicted upon Gaza with all of your might, all of your will, and all of your strength. Do not bow to those who want you to be silent,†he told the Guardian newspaper.

As hundreds of students and supporters at the CUNY encampment in Harlem cheered, he continued, “This is the moment to be heard and shake the earth so that the people of Gaza, the people of Rafah, the people of the West Bank, the people of Palestine can feel your solidarity with them.â€

Abu-Jamal was a founding member of the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Panther Party and became a radio journalist and president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Association of Journalists. 

In 1982, he was convicted and sentenced to death 1982 for the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner in Philadelphia in 1981.

Abu-Jamal spent almost three decades in solitary confinement on death row before his death sentence was overturned by a federal court, citing irregularities in the original sentencing process.

A prolific writer and critic of the US criminal justice system and Black struggle, Abu-Jamal is serving life without parole, and his supporters regard him as a political prisoner.