3 April 1996
Occasional Report:

"BIRZEIT STUDENTS PROTEST TO ARAFAT"

by Nigel Parry, Birzeit Public Relations Office

This morning, April 3rd, 1996, around one thousand Birzeit students scheduled a demonstration in Ramallah to protest recent events by the PNA in An-Najah University and to protest the arrest of 18 Birzeit students by the PNA. Today in Ramallah, the first actual business meeting of the elected Palestinian Council was due to take place.

Student ordered buses from nearby Birzeit but reported that Palestinian Authority forces intervened, allegedly threatening the owners of the bus company if the students were transported to Ramallah. A second attempt to hire buses similarly failed.

Students decided to set out on foot from the university towards Ramallah at 10am. At around 11:30, they arrived at a specially errected PNA checkpoint near Surda on the way to Ramallah. Liutenant Nimr Baghdad, the officer commanding the Palestinian Police at the checkpoint, answered a question from the Public Relations Office as to whether the students would be let through the checkpoint by saying, "Our authority is democratic, so we will let the students through. But we are still waiting for orders."

As events transpired, the students were prevented from moving through the checkpoint. After discussions, the students demanded to see Arafat, to present him with a letter of written demands. After approximately one hour with no movement, the students pushed past the checkpoint and began to run towards Ramallah.

Palestinian Police errected a series of barricades but it was a losing battle. At one point they fired live ammunition in the air in an attempt to stop the students but were ignored. The Police did not attempt to stop the students with any force. Birzeit Human Rights Action Project staff stated, "The Palestinian Police utilised enormous restraint. They were a model for their collegues elsewhere." The students, although assertive in their wish to reach Ramallah, similarly used no violence.

At 1 pm the students arrived outside the former Israeli prison in Ramallah, known as the Muqata'*, or District Headquarters of the PNA in Ramallah, the Birzeit students were joined by students from Bethlehem and Abu Dis Law College. All the students welcomed each other.

Birzeit Student Council President Ibrahim Kreishi articulated the students' demands. "Please listen to us brothers," he said to the Police, "We just want to speak to Arafat and the elected members of the Council. We have a letter of demands and we want to raise them. Our first demand is the unconditional release of all our students who are political prisoners, regardless of their faction. Secondly, we want the results of the inquiry of the events at An-Najah." The students chanted until Kreishi asked them to quiet down and listen to the Police, "now that they have heard our side."

A Palestinian Police Commander asked for a half an hour break while they tried to sort something out. The students agreed.

As the period reached an end, the soldiers returned in a convoy of cars pulled up and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat alighted to speak to the students. A woman shouted, "All we wanted to do was to come and speak with you but the Authority interfered with our buses." Arafat responded, "The second I heard that you were all here, I left the Council meeting to come and speak with you."

The students became noisy at one point when Arafat was speaking. Student Council leader Ibrahim Kreishi asked them to be quiet, "This is not democratic," he said, "This is our President. He has heard our point of view. Now we must hear his." The students responded positively, murmering agreement and quietening down.

Arafat spoke about some of the problems of recent weeks and asked for a delegation of students to come and speak with him in the Muqata'*.

Student representatives from Birzeit and the other universities went into the meeting. They repeated their demands to Arafat, explaining their feelings at length.

"Just give us a couple of days," said Arafat, "It's not long to wait. I will handle this personally. I will present your demands to the Palestinian Legislative Council this afternoon and to the Cabinet on Saturday."

"Concerning An-Najah," he continued, "You heard my position through the media. I totally condemned the actions. I will ask the committee of inquiry to get the results very quickly and punish anyone who did not act in accordance with the law."

Adli Da'na from the Public Relations Office, who was present in the meeting between Arafat and the students, commented, "The meeting was frank and friendly. He spoke about the critical times in which we were living. 'There are so many restrictions,' Arafat told us, 'I am not taking to you as a President but as a comrade and we all have to work hard to build the Palestinian state. Please understand the situation.'"

Da'na also reported "He also spoke about the closure and the Gazan students. 'This is nothing to do with us,' said Arafat, 'it is from the Israeli side. It is a collective punishment to humiliate us. People in Gaza are starving because of the closure'."

Adli Da'na added that, "Arafat promised to call for another meeting with the students or to send a reply to the demands in three days."

The overall feeling of students was that the whole day's events were very positive and a step in the right direction for Palestinian democracy. The issue of democracy has been central to campus life recently, and this is the second time that the students have raised their concerns with the Palestinian Authority. The experience of a dealing with an elected authority has brought out the best from the students, who take the issue of democracy very seriously.

Birzeit University continues to commend its students and affirms the necessity for a democratic Palestinian society, based on the principles of freedom of belief and speech, and the need for tolerance between the many different facets of Palestinian society. Today was an example of this in action.

*"Muqata'" (district) was incorrectly rendered "Mohafez" (governor) in the original press release, and has been corrected for this archive.

Originally released: 5:20pm - 3 April 1996

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