Election News
A Daily Update
A bright and sunny day saw students milling around the campus to read the newly-hung posters in several locations around the campus. Blocs made presentations, many choosing to perform short drama sketches, along with the ubitquitous speeches and music.
The new Changes Bloc, comprised of Palestinian-American returnees known as "natives" in local slang, chose to present some of their election material in English, an unusual step for Birzeit elections. One Changes Bloc poster read: "You can't change the world but you can change the facts. When you change the facts, you can change points of view. When you change points of view, you may change a vote. When you change a vote...you may change the world!"
The newly formed left-wing coalition - the Progressive Democratic Student Pole - unveiled their election prop, a giant rainbow-coloured fountain pen mounted on a cart. The rainbow symbolises pluralism and tolerance of different student groups, the pen a symbol of education and learning. Students were reported to have responded positively to this new bloc, and it remains to be seen how well they will do on election day - April 9th.
Rain dogged election day today, soaking any posters and students that remained outside to hear another series of presentations. A small scandal followed allegations that one Islamic Bloc presentation mocked the physical disability of one of the Progressive Democratic Student Pole leaders. The Islamic Bloc strongly denied that this was the case.
The big banners on buildings gave the student blocs an opportunity to spread their message in a billboard format, as well as through the smaller posters. The Islamic Bloc used this medium to put up banners of the Dome on the Rock, one with a fire burning on it and an Israeli-coloured octopus trying to grasp the dome, a symbolic reference to recent Israeli moves to change the final status of the city. National politics still form a major part of this year's campaign, although some blocs are putting a much higher emphasis on student affairs and issues than previously witnessed.
In a more serious development, the Progressive Democratic Student Pole released a leaflet alleging Palestinian Authority intimidation of Pole leaders. The Bloc stressed this was not part of their election campaign. Pole leaders commented that motivation for this harassment may lie in fears that the Pole are more likely to take votes away from the pro-Authority Jerusalem Bloc than from the Islamic Bloc.
Tonight, students are preparing for tomorrow's election debate, in which each bloc has to answer a series of questions about their positions in front of the student body.
As campaigning died down on campus yesterday (Jerusalem Bloc presentation pictured left), news had begun to filter back in the late evening about Hebron University's Students Council elections. Out of the six student blocks participating, the Islamic Bloc received the highest percentage - 51 percent - of the vote. With 701 votes out of the total of 1,322, the Islamic Bloc took 19 seats out of the 35 student council seats. Shabiba (the youth wing of Arafat's Fateh faction) took 15 seats and the PFLP one seat. Turnout in Hebron University's proportional election was 94 percent. It is generally felt that Birzeit's elections will not necessarily follow this pattern. Hebron is a traditional, Islamic-orientated city, with no history of support for left-wing parties, who accounted for 20 percent of Birzeit's previous student council.
Today, banners and posters and rallys disappeared as the blocs gathered at 2pm for the election debate. Around 1,500 students turned out to hear representatives of the five student blocs answering questions composed by the Student Affairs Office, which coordinates the elections.
In answer to one question about what each bloc would do if it was given 100,000 Jordanian Dinars (around US$130,000), the Progressive Democratic Student Pole replied that the priority would be the completion of the student complex on campus, the construction of which began in the 1980s. The Jerusalem Bloc stated that it would spend the money on tuition and books for students. The Islamic Bloc pointed out that this year it spent much money on a special library for students that could not afford to buy new books, and that all its finances were documented and available for checking. The Bloc of the Martyr Fathi Shaqaqi said that it would spend the money for the propagation of Islam on campus.
The Bloc of the Martyr Fathi Shaqaqi accused the Progressive Democratic Student Pole of wanting the kind of "freedom" to open bars in Ramallah, so that the returnees could "carry on the luxurious lives they enjoyed in the West." The Jerusalem Bloc accused the Bloc of the Martyr Fathi Shaqaqi of describing female Palestinian returnees as "morally lax". Both issues provoked a strong negative reaction against this Islamic party from many students. Right: Student blocs are always careful to emphasise Palestinian heritage.
The Progressive Democratic Student Pole representative addressed the Islamists, saying "You are against the Palestinian Authority because they are against freedom of thought and speech. You are calling for freedom and pluralism and democracy, but at the same time you say you can only have Islamic rule and an Islamic ideology. What's the difference between you and them?!"
One commentator from the Birzeit Administration, found this position very interesting. "The Pole is ideologically closer to the Jerusalem Bloc overall, but politically closer to the Islamic Bloc in regard to positions vis-a-vis the Palestinian Authority." One of yesterday's banners made by the Progressive Democratic Student Pole underlined this slicing across the existing political spectrum, hitting at key issues in both the Islamic and pro-Palestinian Authority factions. It read: "No to political and social suppression. Yes to difference and pluralism. No to the militarisation of the universities. No to giving our rights away for free or individual benefit. Each bloc standing for election that does not fulfil its promises does not take care of students."
In its opening and closing speech, the Changes Bloc alleged that all the student blocs cared about was politics, not the students themselves. The bloc did not participate in the answering of questions during the debate. A full report on the debate is available on this website.
Tomorrow is election day! To have a sense of how the day unfolds and the voting process is carried out, see A Photographic A-Z of 1995's student council elections
