Student press release

Now, after great frustration and disillusionment, it is obvious that the current track of the political solution does not fulfil even the minimum demands and rights and ambitions of the Palestinian people to attain liberation, independence and security. With the increased pace of Israeli settlement policy it has become an obligation for us - the student movement of Birzeit University - to have a clear position towards settlements, the peace process and the current deterioration of the situation.

We place the ultimate responsibility for [the current deterioration of the situation] on the Israeli government, although at the same time we recognise that all other parties involved in the peace process also share a measure of responsibility.

We state that it is a legitimate right for the Palestinian people to defend their land, their dignity and their stolen rights, in any way they see fit.

As a result of our sense of national duty, we publicly declare that we will be pioneers of this struggle. Our actions are not to be understood as support for the political position of anyone else.

We in the student movement at Birzeit University urge students to take on their role as leaders in society, and to begin to increase their protests with the following demands:

1. We affirm the necessity of national unity and demand the unconditional and immediate release of all the political prisoners inside Palestinian Authority prisons, to enhance this unity.
   
   
2. We believe it a necessity to suspend all security, military and field coordination, in all its forms, between the Palestinian Authority and the occupation authorities.
   
   
3. We urge all the Arab countries to stop all forms of normalisation with the occupation, by withdrawing their ambassadors and representatives to the Israeli enemy.
   
   
4. We urge the international community, all its organisations, and the European Union to stand against American domination and to take serious steps to fulfil the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people on their land.
   
   
5. We put all the responsibility of the expected explosion in the region on the international community in general, and on the United States in particular for using its veto [to avoid condemnation of Israel on the settlement issue].
   
   
6. We in the Birzeit University student movement emphasise our total refusal and rejection of Israeli actions, especially its policies of settlement and the Judaisation [of Jerusalem], and we declare that we will not stand inactive in front of such violations. On the contrary, we will be taking the following steps:
   
   
   1. We will encourage our people to conduct popular activities and to practice all forms of struggle against Zionist settlement.
      
      
   2. We will launch large student and public marches to affirm our confrontation of settlements, wherever and whenever they exist, by fighting in any appropriate form the people see fit.

Youth Student Movement
United Left Blocs
Birzeit University