Birzeit University Affirms: Stop Collective Punishment, Restore Civil Life
Israel's Destruction of Property is a Grave Breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention

Birzeit --- Birzeit faculty and staff who normally would at this time be welcoming students back on campus for the University’s second semester that starts on Wednesday March the 14th, are presently engaged in tackling the serious problems resulting from the Israeli army’s wanton destruction of portions of the Birzeit-Ramallah road, the only road linking the University and 33 surrounding villages to Ramallah. An Israeli tank and military outpost guard the two deep “trenches” gouged out of the road by Israeli bulldozers on 7 and 8 March, and no vehicular traffic can pass, including ambulances and trucks carrying food and other basic goods.

For many faculty, these events recall the “bad old days” of direct military occupation when the University was closed at the will of the Israeli military commander – but in many respects, the measures taken by the Israeli army in the last week are worse, totally disrupting the University and public life in general, as well as threatening the livelihoods and lives of numerous rural households. These are not only a harsh reminder of the continued presence of the Israeli military occupation but also a dire portent for the future and casting more than doubt on the new Israeli government’s stated intention to ease the siege against Palestinian civilians.

Birzeit University points out that the Israeli army’s destruction and blockade of the Birzeit road is not only a form of collective punishment prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention but also a “grave breach” of the Convention. Grave breaches to the Convention include “extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.” (Article 147) The Israeli army’s wanton destruction of Palestinian public property – and indeed of a road extensively repaired and expanded in the past several years with international support and donations – constitutes such a violation and cannot be justified by law or necessity. Signatories of the Convention have a clear duty to intervene to “ensure respect” of the Convention and the University calls for such immediate intervention.

When a University serving 5000 undergraduate and graduate students and hosting institutes of research, public policy and community service is forced to grind to a halt, the damage is almost incalculable. On the administrative level, grades cannot be turned in, students cannot register for second semester, and appointments cannot be kept. On the academic level, Birzeit students, who managed to continue their academic work throughout the past troubled months, are thrown into doubt about their academic future and faculty members struggle to develop contingency plans with each passing day. Research teams do not meet; projects as diverse as developing the Palestinian justice system, investigating diabetes and student psychological stress, or training television journalists are halted at critical junctures. Simply speaking, the military logic of occupation and excessive force are the antithesis of orderly and productive civil life. Birzeit University stands for the latter and appeals to colleagues, universities and academic institutions and international institutions to protest both the destruction undertaken by the Israeli army in the Birzeit vicinity and all such illegal acts of closure, siege and destruction of property of Palestinian civilians and society.