Manchester Students reaffirm their commitment to the Palestinians’ Right to Education.
Yesterday (Wed 14th) Manchester Student’s Union held it’s General Meeting with attendance of over 1100 students and strengthened their commitment to the Palestinian’s Right to Education and their twinning with An-Najah University with almost a two-thirds majority.
A motion called “Peace through Education” was proposed which aimed at undermining the twinning of Manchester Student’s Union with An Najah. It gave the Palestinian university the ultimatum of signing a statement condemning terrorism within two months or the twinning would be abandoned.
It was a racist motion that caused vast indignation amongst the student population by stereotyping Palestinians as terrorists and accusing An-Najah University of actively supporting terrorism. The writers of the motion cited an unreliable website as a resource which included many inaccuracies and racist quotes.
The movement against the motion involved a very wide layer of groups and societies from different backgrounds and interests, who were unified by the will to defeat the racist motion and support UMSU’s stance on solidarity with Palestinian students under occupation. One student who attended the meeting said, “The motion shows that the racism against the Palestinians is one of the last forms of acceptable racism. If we had been twinned with a black university during apartheid in South Africa and they had been given them the ultimatum asking them to condemn gun crime there would have been international outrage, and rightly so.â€
With over 16 500 students enrolled in its 19 faculties and two colleges, An-Najah is one of the largest Universities in Palestine. It is located in the city of Nablus, part of the territories that, according to the United Nations, the state of Israel has been illegally occupying since 1967. On 11th November, members of the Right to Education Campaign at An-Najah University published a response to the motion in question – through it, they stated: “Neither the University nor its Student Council is a terrorist organisation, and the implication that they are is insulting” and further “The motion ‘Peace Through Education’ is defamatory because it repeatedly implies that ANU and it’s Student Council promotes, facilitates or has links with terrorism”.
It is a fact that the Israeli occupation and the apartheid policing tactics that they uphold cause great suffering to the Palestinian people. Moreover, the Palestinian youth’s basic human right to education has been systematically denied by the state of Israel: Universities have been shelled, broken into and forced to close for large periods of time – not to mention the very practical difficulties students must face when trying to pursue their degrees against the backdrop of a military occupation.
The motivation for our Union’s twinning with An-Najah University was based around the ideal of showing solidarity with fellow students enduring acute hardship in Palestine and helping to break the isolation imposed on the Palestinian people. Also it highlights the importance of a right to education globally, and how it should be fought for. These beliefs are something that is part UMSU’s long history of internationalism and it’s excellent commitment to supporting just causes all across the world.
The motion resolved to accept the invitation made by An-Najah University for an olive tree from the university to be planted on campus at Manchester as a gesture of peace and as a symbol of life, and allow for a fortnightly article from An-Najah University students to be printed in Student Direct, the students’ official news paper.
The reaction from An Najah after the new amended motion was passed was very positive. A statement from them included, “we are very pleased that the amended motion was passed. The solidarity from Manchester Students Union is something we are glad to have. We hope that this will help us to get more attention to our right to an education”.
The strengthening of the twinning in Manchester is part of a nationwide movement for solidarity with Palestinians students. Many universities in the UK are now twinned with Palestinian Universities and many others are in the process of finding a twin. A student from Leeds University who was involved with the campaign to get Leeds University twinned with Berzeit University said, “This is an exceptionally significant victory, and can only help other forms of solidarity with Palestinian.”
Action Palestine
What a brilliant result: students backed solidarity with the resistance in Palestine by an overwhelming majority.
Viva Palestina!
This is a great victory and it goes to show that making slanderous accusations will can win anyone any political debate!
Fantastic news!
Freedom and Justice for Palestine!
Dear sisters and brothers of Action Palestine, and all the students of Manchester University who contributed to the defeating of the racist motion (Peace Through Education) and who supported Palestinian right to education under the harsh conditions of the Israeli military occupation, I say may Allah bless you; you stood for peace and justice; you stood for the truth, and I always say “the truth shall make us all freeâ€.
I thank you all for your uncompromising humanist vision and for your solidarity with the people of Palestine; you have given us hope that we are not alone in our predicament and proved to all that Israeli lies and propaganda have lost its deceptive rigor. I salute and assure you that we at An-Najah National University are wholeheartedly committed to building strong bridges with Manchester University and its great students and faculty. Our minds and hearts are open to true cooperation in the different fields of culture and academia. We believe in justice for all. We believe in equality for all. We believe in the beauty of humanity free from oppression and Apartheid states and mentality. We salute you from Nablus, the besieged and wounded city. We salute you from An-Najah National University, the university that is trying to preserve Palestinian right to education under condition of military occupation. Your solidarity and support is cherished and appreciated by all of our faculty and students.
My best salaams and regards,
Saed J. Abu-Hijleh
Lecture & former Director of Public Relations
An-Najah National University
Nablus, Occupied Palestine
This was a fantastic day! it was amazing to see so many students gather, unite and stand up for justice. It does go to show that using scare tactics and using the “T” word just like tht doesnt scare the general student population (who, lets not forget are intellectuals) into not thinking and just blindly voting with slanderous lies and accusations with no foundations!!
Well dont to the students of Manchester university for seeing through the lies and accusations of motion 1!!
*well done*
This was a beautiful day indeed. It showed what average people, students in fact, can accomplish, when they put their minds to it. It is just too bad that students and other young people cannot get together more often, to make change. While keeping the university connected with an-Najjah University is important, Palestine is still occupied, thousands of Palestinians are still imprisoned, and Palestinian human rights are still being denied. These issues should remain in all of our minds, and should be the motive to come together again, as a powerful force to make change. We have a lot of work to do, so lets not get too happy.
One justice fought for, and many more to go.
Hi all, I’ve just discovered this site and am putting in a link to it from http://www.sue.be/pal. I have just visited An-Najah as part of a solidarity delegation from British trade unions. The new campus is beautiful, the students and staff were fantastic and I was deeply impressed by the quality of the work being produced under the terrible conditions of the occupation. I have lots of photos if you’d like some for your site, including some of the artwork on display in the Faculty of Fine Arts.
Please don’t believe the Zionist claptrap about Nablus being unsafe to visit (except when the IDF invades it and trashes homes and shops – I have photos of that as well) or a hotbed of terrorism. Go and visit it for yourself – it is a beautiful city and you will love it.
in solidarity,
Dr. Sue Blackwell
National Executive Committee, UCU
Hi
Iam returning to Nablus soon and would like any up to date info on the c heck points between Jerusalem and Nablus.
Also any ideas re cheap air fares, ideally direct?
Richard Frost, 11 Catherine st Whitehaven
07946 908499