Hundreds of Birzeit University students held a sit-in yesterday (February 29th, 2000) on campus as a sign of protest against the steps taken by Palestinian security services of detaining the students who participated in throwing stones at French PM Jospin. One of BZU students said that the security services arrested 120 students from all political blocs, including Fateh Movement. Bethlehem students held a strike yesterday demanding the release of all students. Fateh Movement issued a statement appealing to President Arafat to interfere and release the students. In Gaza, the student council at the Islamic University demanded the immediate release of the head of the student council Ayman Taha who is arrested in PA prisons. PLC member Kamal Sharafi, head of the PLC Human Rights Committee, said it is regretful to see the Palestinian activists pay the price of his struggle to his own people; he called on the administrations of Palestinian universities to support the students at BZU. Ismail Haniyye, director of Sheikh Ahmad Yaseen Office, said the students act at BZU represents a letter to Jospin that he attacked the dignity of the Arab Moslem people, demanding the release of all students. A spokesman for the DFLP condemned the continuation of the arrest campaign against BZU students.
Meanwhile, Birzeit is still under siege since Saturday (February 25th, 2000). PA preventive security forces have been raiding homes in the day and the middle of the night, arresting scores of BZU students (and some who aren't students)-the count could be well over 100 in the last 3 days (according to the students movement figures) In some cases, PA secret service police in unmarked cars have pulled up to walking students and abducted them. Others were arrested on the University campus by armed men, crossing a major red line regarding the presence of arms on campus.
On Saturday evening they conducted a thorough search of the campus, office by office, and kicked in the men's bathroom door when they didn't have the key to unlock it. Many other students have been taken away at checkpoints at the University exits, while others have been arrested at impromptu checkpoints in Ramallah and Birzeit village. The campus is infiltrated with student who work for the PA apparaties, who give lists of names of people to be arrested.
In addition, the Israelis have put in place a stringent checkpoint on the Birzeit-Ramallah road, including an ambush site (where people who see the checkpoint ahead often get out of the taxi so as not to pass through it). The IDF has used the PA's mass arrest campaign to conduct one of its own. More than 15 students have been taken by the IDF in the last 2 days at the Ramallah-Birzeit checkpoint.
In addition, students who protested the arrests in a march in Ramallah on Sunday were followed afterwards by secret service people (who conivingly participated in the march themselves) and were arrested. This morning the Manara and the road leading to Birzeit is lined with riot police in full gear. They are attempting to breed a climate of fear one of the student movement said.
What is equally absurd is that many students are facing charges of attempted murder of Lionel Jospin, and are scheduled to be tried in military court. Many reports are coming that those who have been arrested are being beaten in the Jericho prison. This morning, the PA announced an indefinite ban on public protests.
Every Palestinian university (including al Azhar in Gaza) is currently waiting word from the BZU student movement to hold a huge rally in Ramallah to protest the PA's actions. And it is quite likely that the PA will react with heavy force to such a direct challenge to its authority . The BZU employee union has issued a statement stating that classes will be suspended until every student is released. It is very likely as well that all the universities will join the boycott.
The general atmosphere on campus is that of defiance and unity in action. If there were any reservations about whether the stone-throwing against Jospin was legitimate, they have been wiped away by anger at the PA, including even the Shabiba (the Fateh students).
On campus, professors and students alike are incensed that the administration even invited Jospin to speak here in the first place, and in the second that the Sulta decided to intervene in University affairs with the aftermath. One resolution presented at the very hot employee union meeting was to demand that from now on, no more zionists be invited into the university , and that secondly, when big name visitors are invited to speak, that they do so from Kamal Nasser auditorium to show respect for the struggle (Jospin apparently refused to speak in the hall because it was dedicated to a martyr--Kamal Nasser was assasinated in Beirut in 1972 by an Israeli commando team.
One professor said that "Arafat needs to be reminded who Birzeit university is, and what the stones of Birzeit mean, and on which children's backs he rode into this land." There was a strong sentiment that the PA is even worse than the IDF.
One example mentioned: the stoning of the US ambassador who tried to visit the University in 1985; his car did not even make it into the main gate before it had to turn back.
Many professors were sickened by Hanna Nasser's apology to Jospin; particularly that he distanced the University from the "outsider trouble makers." One said, "how dare he? Instead of taking a position to whiten our faces in front of the French, we should embrace the actions of the students. These are our students, our sons and daughters, and it would have been surprising had they received this Zionist in any other way!