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| Thursday, 24-Feb-2005 00:00 |
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Urgent Appeal - Birzeit University Right to Education Campaign
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Please look at my archive for examples of photos of roadblocks to Birzeit.
PB
Urgent Appeal: Bring Gaza Students Back to Birzeit University!
Two months ago, four Birzeit University students from Gaza were forcibly removed from their studies in the West Bank and illegally deported to the Gaza Strip by the Israeli occupation Army. No charges were made against them, but they have been prevented from returning to Birzeit University to continue their studies. All four students were due to graduate by the end of this academic year.
The Right to Education Campaign at Birzeit University launched an international appeal for the deported students, and hundreds of prominent academics, concerned individuals, trade unions and human rights organizations around the world responded. The Israeli Army Legal Advisor received a stream of faxes and letters, demanding that the students be allowed to return to their studies.
As a result of this international pressure, the Israeli Army stated that the students might be permitted to come back to Birzeit University, but only if they signed a guarantee to permanently return to the Gaza Strip upon completion of their studies. This latest condition exposes the real motive behind the forced expulsion of Gaza students from the West Bank: to impose a final separation between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The West Bank and Gaza Strip are internationally recognized as one integral territory. Under international law everyone has the right to freely choose their place of residence within a single territory. As such, all Palestinians from Gaza have the right to live, work and study in the West Bank and vice versa. This has been actively undermined by the illegal permit system and closure policy imposed by the Israeli occupation since 1991, preventing thousands of Gaza students from studying at West Bank universities.
Since 2000, Israel has made it virtually impossible for Gaza students to study at the eight Palestinian universities in the West Bank. In 1999 there were some 350 Gaza students studying at Birzeit University, today there are only 35. The four deported students - Bashar Abu Shahala, Walid Muhanna, Bashar Abu Salim and Mohammad Matar – are among the last Gaza students still studying in the West Bank.
The Gaza students’ issue is part of the wider Israeli policy to obstruct and attack education in Palestine. Students in the West Bank are prevented from reaching their universities by frequent closures of cities, hundreds of military roadblocks and the construction of the illegal Wall. As a result, the number of new Birzeit students coming from Jenin in the northern West Bank declined by 100% in 2004. In the same year, over 1,500 Gaza students were prevented from traveling to their universities abroad.
Birzeit University urgently calls on all supporters, human rights organizations, and government representatives around the world to:
Demand the immediate and unconditional return of the four deported Gaza students to Birzeit University
Demand the right of Palestinian students to study at any university in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in accordance with international law
Demand the right of all Palestinian students to freely pursue their education in accordance with the right to freedom of movement and the fundamental human right to education
Please write to:
Col. Yaer Lutstein
Legal Advisor
Bet El Civil Administration
West Bank
Fax number: +972 2 997 7326
Mr. Shaul Mofaz
Israeli Minister of Defense
Email sar@mod.gov.il
Fax number: +972 3 697 6990
Please also copy your letters to the Right to Education Campaign at Birzeit University. Email: right2edu@birzeit.edu Fax: +972 2 298 2059
Further Action
To continue supporting Palestinian students’ rights, and to find out how to affiliate to the Right to Education Campaign at Birzeit University please visit http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/news/article5. You can also subscribe to the bi-monthly Right to Education Bulletin by emailing right2edu@birzeit.edu with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line.
Related Links:
Gaza Students Appeal 29/11/04 http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/news/article238
Gaza Students Update 18/12/04 http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/news/article246
Amira Hass, Haaretz, 17/2/05 http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/news/article262
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| Wednesday, 3-Nov-2004 00:00 |
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Well I know it has been an incredibly long time since I last posted, and I have seen many things, and done many things, and of course the situation is deteriorating, and Yasser Arafat is in Paris, and who knows what the future holds for Palestine.
As far as my future is concerned, I have, for now, left Palestine. Unfortunately, work and other obligations have forced me to leave for at least a year. This means I won’t be posting any photos from the West Bank but I may put up information now and again.
So, this is a last ‘photo’ posting, but I am pleased to say I have put up quite a few. I have put the photos on the dates of the days they were taken so you will have to browse below. They include Qalqilya and Hebron and various photos of the Wall.
I hope you find them of interest, and thanks to those of you who have been following my page.
All the best
PB
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| Monday, 4-Oct-2004 00:00 |
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This photo was taken the night Israeli army, intelligence and police forces came to Ramallah Tahta and killed 4 Palestinians, and one of their own guys (oops).
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| Wednesday, 29-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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Hebron (continued)
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Tarpat junction checkpoint
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Beit Hadassa settlement, source and cause of violence
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soldiers chatting to settler in Hebron seen from Kurtuba school
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| Tuesday, 28-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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Hebron
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entrance to Hebron
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blocked part of Old City
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rubbish thrown at Palestinians by settlers
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PB went to Hebron for work, and it was everything I had heard – and worse. They say the soldiers/border patrol etc in Hebron are some of the worst in the West Bank. I can believe it. Their treatment of children and others beggars belief. They search the bags of little girls and boys on their way to school in a harsh and violent manner. They threatened to beat a Palestinian colleague of mine if she repeated her ‘mistake’ of taking photos where ‘Arabs are not allowed to take photos’. They harassed people going in and out of the Old City (if they let them in at all). But none of this compares to the fact that they beat the girls of Kurtuba school as they returned from a school outing. IDF and Border Patrol laying into little girls, beating and kicking – what a way to ‘defend’ a country. We took statements from the girls and their headmistress, we had been with them earlier in the day, and I have no doubt the event took place. I also have no doubt that a settler girl who could not have been more than 2 threw a stone at a teacher of Kurtuba as the teacher and her students left their school. She was defended in her right to this by 5 soldiers. I was there for that one. I have photos of the child as she is standing back after her moment of fun.
I also have photos of settler boys who threw water and grit at myself and my colleagues in the Old City (luckily not old cooking oil which is also thrown). Protected behind fences, razor wire, and by the army, these children did not show hatred for Palestinians, they showed contempt. I find that more frightening. I cannot express what I feel for parents who bring their children up to act in this way.
I know that what I witnessed in Hebron was only a tiny, and tame, example of what goes on there every day. I commend the TIPH, and volunteers such as the Ecumenical Accompaniers, and the Christian Peace Teams (two of whose members were severely attacked south of Hebron) who monitor and report on the situation. The girls at Kurtuba rely on the EAs for protection and told us of hiding behind them when they were attacked (if they were lucky enough to be near an EA at the time).
I know that the girls who continue to go to school at Kurtuba, and their teachers, are courageous examples of passive resistance to occupation and overwhelming settler violence (they are attacked on their departure from school regularly, and often not by tiny people like the 2 year old above).
Vehicular access to Hebron was closed to Palestinians whilst we were there. We climbed sand blocks to get into the city (the whole city, not just the Old City). The bridge between Halhoul and Hebron was blocked, and we also climbed up sand blocks and down huge holes to get to Halhoul.
Closure of cities, sealing in and restriction of movement, together with violence against a civilian population at the hands of settlers and security forces. Very few rulers would publicly try to justify such acts. Israel’s rulers do, and they continue to be allowed to. I wonder why?
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| Sunday, 26-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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Wall approaching Qalandiya checkpoint
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Qalandiya with turnstiles and herding. Took an hour to pass.
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Qalqilya
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These photos were taken during a trip to Qalqilya. The Wall has gone up in concrete and fence form round Qalqilya and Habla. We waited at one of the infamous ‘gates’ where those with permits – in this case farmers – can get access to closed areas during specific times. The army turned up 15 minutes after the scheduled opening time. The Palestinians have to open the first two gates, even though there is razor wire loose along one of them, and then they approach the soldiers at the third gate (one by one of course) and raise their shirts to show what is underneath.
We met a farmer who had invested all his money in new plastic growing equipment (possibly polytunnels, I’m not sure), and then the Wall had gone up. He has no option but to continue farming, even though he never knows if he will gain access to his land, and the limited access means the crops cannot be properly attended to and are often damaged. He is married with 2 children, he is not yet 30 years old.
We also visited a girls school very near the Wall. The Wall’s visual impact is obvious, less evident to the naked eye are the psycho social problems suffered by the children, and some staff, flowing from the Wall. Luckily for these girls, someone is trying to help them, with psycho social provision being arranged. But nothing can be done for the teachers who miscarried or had premature births as a result of the concussion grenades and gas that were used at the Wall.
We also drove along the new ‘Qalqilya to Habla’ road. This is, in fact, a road sunken below the land which has been confiscated for the Wall and the road runs under flyovers which have the Wall on them, and these ‘tunnels’ underneath the Wall have gates on them so that the road can be sealed off at any time. Ingenious, and it all looks fairly innocent if you’re not very observant.
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| Thursday, 2-Sep-2004 00:00 |
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Demonstration in Ramallah calling for the release of the French journalists kidnapped in Iraq.
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| Saturday, 28-Aug-2004 00:00 |
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view to Jacob's well
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Nablus gathering for prisoners on hunger strike
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| Thursday, 26-Aug-2004 00:00 |
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Some of the families of prisoners on hunger strike, after a demonstration in Ramallah. Ghandi's grandson who visited the West Bank and urged Palestinians to engage in massive organised passive resistance.
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| Monday, 9-Aug-2004 00:00 |
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The Wall at Mas'ha
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Qarawat Bani Hassan Roadblock
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Wall at Mas'ha
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Gates in Wall at Mas'ha (currently permanently closed I'm told)
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These are photos of roadblocks to and from Mas'ha and the Wall at Mas'ha.
Comment at palblog.blogspot.com.
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