Two students from the University of Manchester were not able to reach An-Najah their twin university in the West Bank due to the city being under siege, curfew, and attack from the Israeli army.
The students were in the west bank on a family visit, and agreed to visit an-Najah for the purpose of collecting important documents for the UMSU. However for the duration of their visit, the city of Nablus was under incursions from the Israeli army, to the damage of 40 million Israeli shekels, and the injury of 38 civilians including 2 disabled civilians and medical staff.
The students had arranged with the staff of the university and the students’ council to visit the university but every time they tried to travel from Bethlehem to Nablus (around 50miles) they were turned away by Israeli checkpoints around the Nablus.
Also, the journey, straight from Bethlehem to Nablus should take no more than one and a half hours. However, due to the status of the Manchester students, they were not allowed to go through Jerusalem, so the detour including waiting at the Israeli checkpoints took them up to four hours each time.
Palestinian students from An-Najah were clearly disappointed the visit was not allowed to happen when he said: “I was looking forward to meeting students from UMSU, the support we had from them is amazing, but it’s different when it’s face to face.”
Rana Batarseh, from UMSU was equally disappointed, “I guess this is why we choose to twin with a Palestinian university, the travel restrictions are collective punishment embossed on a whole people, they don’t allow a normal life to go on, we had been looking forward to this visit for a long time, I really hope, these the conditions change for the sake of the people who are living here. I was also shocked to hear that students from An Najah university were illegally detained by the Israeli army during the incursion without charge, and to this day haven’t been charged. I really think that UMSU should do something to support these students, who add to the 56 already being tortured in Israeli jails.”
The twinning between UMSU and An Najah University began after the motion to twin the two institutions was passed at the March 2006 General Meeting. Since then the two institutions have hosted shared events. The twinning has ignited many a debate on campus surrounding the situation in Palestine and has faced some opposition yet many students support this link and also defended this twinning at Nov 14th General Meeting 2007.
Dr Nabil’s thoughts on the invasion “The invasion happened at a time when the governor of Nablus was able to restore order to the City by collecting arms from all armed men who roamed the streets of Nablus. The invasion disturbed the students who live in the City away from their families after commuting has become impossible because of the atrocities and harassments they are exposed to at the roadblocks. The invasion increases frustrations among the young population of university students, who were anticipating an ease up of the situation after Annapolis only to face a new wave of unjustified harassment. The Israelis always like to abort all attempts made at improving the Palestinian conditions under the pretext of Security. Palestinian young men are aware of the fact that detaining, humiliating and killing helpless young men will certainly not help in promoting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Israeli acts of violence against Palestinians aim at evacuating Palestinian young from their land after driving them to the limits of despair. The invasion renewed scenes of bloodshed in the street of Nablus; one Palestinian young man was shot in the head on his way to the Friday prayer right in front of The Old Campus of An-Najah National University. The killed man was a father of two young children and the Israeli soldiers admitted killing him by mistake. During the incursion, the University was closed for three days, and several young people were arrested.
Nabil Alawi, Ph.D., Director, Public Relations Department
University of Manchester Students’ Union Executive has written an open letter to University of Nottingham Students’ Union Executive asking them why they haven’t defended political freedoms on their campus.
An Open Letter to Nottingham Students’ Union Executive
When activists at the University of Nottingham decided to inject some politics onto their campus and protest against the Israeli Apertheid Wall, campus security called the Police who arrested one activist. The response of the University and the Police was appaling. However, even worse, the Students’ Union did nothing to defend its membership. Below is a copy of the letter sent by UMSU to Nottingham in protest.
Dear Executive Members, Nottingham Students’ Union
We are writing to express our concerns regarding an incident involving Students at Nothingham University on the 04/12/07.
Given the sacrosanct nature of freedom of assembly in facilitating the right of students to be politically active on any campus across the country, and the implied responsibility student unions have in supporting students ability to engage freely and without hinderence in pursuit of their causes, it is vital that we, as representatives of student bodies, ensure that any infringements are condemned and these basic rights asserted.
It is in the spirit of defending the rights of Students to engage in political activity that we, the executive of Manchester Students Union write to you.
It is our belief that if students are attacked in one part of the country, as a student movement we have an obligation to stand in solidarity with those attacked. In this case it appears that Nothingham Students have had their basic democratic rights attacked, and any future student actions undermined.
Students from Nothingham University excerised their right to protest against the Apartheid Israeli Wall currently being constructed in the Occupied territories. Those students used their right to engage in political activity to legitimately raise awareness of this situation and illustrated how the wall is creating an obstacle to the development of a lasting peace.
The fact that University Security Guards were deployed by the authorities with the expressed objective to illegitimately shut down this student action stands as an affront to all basic principles of student autonomy.
If this was not bad enough, the involvement of the police on a student campus threatening the arrest of students in their own university raising awareness on an issue would be more akin to the response of Mugabe’s Zimbawe or the military in Burma.
We ask that you take this issue seriously, and affirm the freedom of students to engage in political activity on campus. In addition, we would hope that the Students’ Union take the issue up with the University authority and point out that across the country students have engaged in similar actions without the violent response of the authorities.
If we can be of any assistance in helping you to assert these basic student rights then please get in touch and we will offer all the solidarity and support necessary to challenge these unacceptable infringements.
In solidarity,
University of Manchester Students’ Union Executive.
University of Manchester Students Union twins with An Najah university Nablus Palestine University of Manchester Students Union passed a motion to twin their Students Union with An Najah University in Nablus Palestine.
The Student Union General Meeting on Wednesday 7th March 2007 was attended by over 600 students and the motion which acknowledged the detrimental effect of the Israeli occupation on the right to education of Palestinian students was passed by a majority of over 50 votes.
The motion stated that students in Palestine have had their right to education consistently denied by the Israeli Occupation: checkpoints, attacks on Universities and limitations on movement which seriously hinder the ability of students in Palestine to learn and that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that everyone has the ‘right to education’.
The union will now lobby Manchester University to provide at least 3 scholarships to Palestinian students who wish to study at the university of Manchester as well as to support the Palestinian students in their “Right to Education†campaign and for their basic Human Rights within the territories of mandate Palestine and refugees.
For more information contact:
Action Palestine
info@actionplestine.org
www.actionpalestine.org