The Electoral Manifesto of the Democratic Student's Pole

It is fifty years since the Nakba. After fifty years of sacrifices a solution was reached which represents a new defeat. A Palestinian Authority was created, shackled by security obligations towards the Israelis. This authority's practices are undemocratic and unjust and the individual is the last thing it seeks to respect. Our struggle will be for the creation of a democratic state which is able to face this oppression and for the creation of a state where everyone's voice is heard. Our struggle is for the establishment of a national framework which includes all political opinions that support the goals of the nation and the individual rather than a specific party, leader, or faction. This explains our calls for all sides and all political activity to be united in preparing a program to save the nation from the Nakba which continues today. Our goals are:

1. Building a national independent student movement.
2. Undertaking a campaign against political detention, addressing the refugee issue, emphasizing the right of return, combating the judiazation of Jerusalem and settlement.
3. Continuing to struggle to maintain Birzeit University's civil character and not allowing it to be overrun by security units.
4. Opposing normalization with the Occupation in all its forms, emphasizing the language of struggle and cultural identity.
5. Continuing to build links with the Palestinians of '48 and stressing that we are in reality one people.
6. Working to build an independent, accountable Palestinian judiciary.
7. Emphasizing international agreements that support the true and practical implementation of human rights.

Social Issues

Dissent is healthy and necessary for any society which wants to develop. Allowing for differences creates in turn suggestions and new points of view, heightens consciousness and elevates society to a higher level of humanity. This will not be achieved unless the individual is able to listen, to argue and to express ideas objectively. However, what we see today in the discourse surrounding women's issues is nothing more than an attempt by the Islamists to repress intellectual, cultural and ideological differences.

They began by doubting our aims, accusing us of being unbelievers and being clients to the West. These accusations turned an argument over differences into intellectual terrorism and limitation of ideologies. They claimed that only their thoughts have the right to be expressed.

In this context, our platform on social issues will be based on confronting intellectual terrorism and on continuing in our attempts to raise social consciousness and the creation of a nation able to absorb all its different individuals. We aim to build a nation in which all different groups and ideas can coexist. A nation free of domination by a single group which does not admit the others' existence, asking the others either to adopt their way of thinking or to find another place to live. We will fight to build a nation where there is a space for all of us with all our differences. Our social goals are:

1. To continue our struggle in supporting women's issues and to work toward just laws which give women equality with men and enable them to participate in building our nation side by side with men.
2. To continue with the struggle to the end, without regard for sex, color, religion or social class and to emphasize the right of all to live in dignity.
3. To continue with the struggle to implement more social democracy which gives the right for each individual to choose his own ideological, intellectual, social and political beliefs.
4. To continue with our struggle to end tribalism, dogmatism, factionalism and political favoritism that rules our society.
5. To continue our cultural activities aimed at building a critical student consciousness able to accept differences, and to stand up for the right of the individual to assert his opinions.

Student Issues:

The student pole views student elections as an opportunity to understand the representation of all blocs in the student council and a democratic process. We refuse confrontation with any of the blocs which form the student council in order to afford the opportunity for all blocs to take part in forming the student council. The failure of the student council to accept its responsibilities towards university students came as a result of the general failure of the two largest blocs at the university (Shabibi and Islamic blocs) to set aside their factional disputes which made every party watch the other and wait for it to make a mistake. Busy with that, they completely forgot their commitments to university students at a time when student leaders needed unity and to avoid tribalism and factionalism. Our goals on student issues are:

1. To continue with struggle for improving the living conditions, services and fees in the girls students hostels.
2. To work on keeping separate the aid fund for students in need and the fees classification that puts students into different fee categories concerning.
3. To continue with the struggle to give students the right to choose whether to take an exam or write a research paper as a means of evaluation.
4. To continue with our previous calls to keep the academic staff of the university from leaving and to develop the university's academic level in order to fulfill the students' and our society's needs.
5. To work on making it easier for a student to move from one faculty to another or from one department to another.