Right to education campaign of An-Najah National University
our RESPONSE to uMSu motion ‘peace through education’

Our concerns

We at the Right to Education Campaign of An-Najah National University (ANU) are concerned that students of the University of Manchester are being asked to vote on a motion that is defamatory and unrepresentative of the actual situation. We urge the University of Manchester Student Union to remove it from the agenda of the General Meeting on 14th November 2007.

Introduction to An-Najah National University

The motion ‘Peace Through Education’ is defamatory because it repeatedly implies that ANU and its Student Council promotes, facilitates or has links with terrorism. ANU is a non-governmental public university governed by a board of Trustees located in the West Bank city of Nablus. With over 16,500 students enrolled in its 19 faculties and two colleges, it is the largest university in the West Bank. ANU has been active in the service of the Palestinian community at the local and national levels and it is an integral part of local community development in almost all fields. ANU has become a cradle and an incubator for a plethora of social and civic activities. Each year the university hosts tens of activities for local and national NGOs: lectures, workshops, conferences, exhibitions, and artistic performances.

Moreover, ANU is the only university in the West Bank that has a full-fledged FM Radio Station that offers a multitude of educational, cultural, and news programs. The FM station is being utilized to enhance the interaction between the university and the local community and has a wide listenership in the Governorate of Nablus and throughout the Northern West Bank.

Likewise, ANU main library has a video conference facility that is open for the use of students and community organizations to conduct seminars and workshops with other students and organizations in other parts of Palestine and around the world thus sharing valuable experiences gained in different localities and districts in several fields and build bridges between communities in Palestine and around the globe (see www.najah.edu). Each year, a student council is voted in by the student population. Neither the University nor its Student Council is a terrorist organisation, and the implication that they are is insulting.

Occupation

The motion ‘Peace Through Education’ fails to be representative of the actual situation because it omits any reference to the occupation. The West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem (named the Occupied Palestinian Territories) are under military occupation by Israel. Regardless of UN resolutions deeming the occupation illegal and demanding Israel’s withdrawal, and the International Court of Justice’s July 2004 finding that the Separation Wall is illegal, 8th June this year marked the occupation’s 40th anniversary. Israel, as an occupying power, has the responsibility under international humanitarian law to protect its occupied population and to not allow its citizens to settle on occupied land.

Yet, the following statistics accumulated since September 2000 indicate Israel’s flagrant disregard for the law, human life and dignity, and clearly show the high human cost of the Israeli military occupation:

4,345 Palestinians killed by Israelis (1,027 Israelis killed by Palestinians)
971 Palestinian children killed by Israelis (119 Israeli children killed by Palestinians)
31,531 Palestinians injured by Israelis (7,633 Israelis injured by Palestinians)
4,170 Palestinian homes demolished (0 Israeli homes demolished)
40% Palestinian unemployment (9% Israeli unemployment)
223 ‘Jewish-only’ settlements and outposts built on Palestinian land
65 UN resolutions issued to Israel, none to OPT.

(Sources: If Americans Knew – www.ifamericansknew.org, B’Tselem, the Israeli Human Rights Information Center – www.btselem.org, Peace Now – www.peacenow.org.il)
The above figures place side by side Palestinian and Israeli deaths and injuries to show the disproportionate use of force against the Palestinian population. All deaths and injuries are to be regretted, indeed no single death or injury is any less devastating than another, but Palestinian casualties often go under-reported or not reported at all.

Education under occupation

The motion ‘Peace Through Education’ is additionally unrepresentative of the situation because it speaks merely of ‘students being regularly disrupted on their way to university by Israeli checkpoints’, education ‘being infringed upon’ and ‘hindered’. The impact of the Israeli military occupation on higher education can be measured in many ways, all of which defy this mild description. Here is a brief summary of the ways in which the educational process is obstructed at An-Najah as a direct consequence of the occupation:

56 students killed as a result of the occupation; 1 lecturer, Professor Khaled Salah, and his son (16) shot dead in their home by Israeli military;
According to today’s estimates, over 100 students and six members of staff are in prison, some held without charge;

Approximately 10,000 students daily or weekly subjected to degrading and humiliating treatment at checkpoints;

Thousands of hours lost waiting at checkpoints; Approximately 30 students of Palestinian origin living in Israeli with Israeli identity cards having to enter Nablus illegally to study (Israeli ID holders are not permitted to enter Nablus); Prevention of students from Gaza from studying at An-Najah, which is the only West Bank or Gazan university to offer some subjects such as Optometry; Denial of visas to foreign students and lecturers and Palestinian lecturers with foreign nationalities to take up teaching posts or places on courses; Barring of the importation of educational equipment and material.

The accusations of radicalism against ANU and its students show total ignorance of the real situation and belittle the unbearable suffering endured by Palestinian society under the yoke of the Israeli military occupation. ANU students and staff regularly express their condemnation of the atrocities committed by the Israeli military occupation authorities and they have the right to do so. Many students and employees lost family members, or have family members in Israeli jails. Many of our students and staff members have been injured themselves, tortured, and are humiliated on a daily basis on checkpoints. The expressions of condemnation are not the source of violence but are a direct result of the violence practiced on Palestinian society. The Israeli military occupation is the ultimate manifestation of violence and terrorism against an unarmed, defenceless, civilian population.

We urge the proposers of the motion ‘Peace Through Education’ to inform themselves more about the impact of the occupation upon the Occupied Palestinian Territories by reading, for example: the UN’s ‘The Humanitarian Impact on Palestinians of Israeli Settlements and Other Infrastructure in the West Bank’ -
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/TheHumanitarianImpactOfIsraeliInfrastructureTheWestBank_full.pdf), or Amnesty International’s 2007 report ‘Enduring occupation: Palestinians under Siege in the West Bank‘ – (http://www.amnesty.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_17772.pdf) or
B’Tselem’s 2007 report ‘Ground to a Halt: Denial of Palestinian’s Freedom of Movement in the West Bank’ -

http://www.btselem.org/english/publications/summaries/20070807_ground_to_a_halt.asp

Additionally, we urge the University of Manchester Student Union to withdraw the motion ‘Peace Through Education’ because it is unrepresentative and defamatory.

Right to Education Campaign
An-Najah National University
Nablus
11th November 2007

Dear Brothers, Sisters and Comrades,

I am honoured to invite you, as the representatives of the students of Al Najah University (Students Union and Zajel Program) to twin with the University of Manchester Student Union (UMSU). At a recent UMSU General Meeting, our members voted overwhelmingly in favour of a twinning of our two student unions and I would like to formally invite you to enter into that partnership with us.

We hope that this twinning will help to give students at Al Najah a voice on our campus so that we can raise awareness of the struggle of Palestinian students simply to realise their right to an education. We also see the twinning as a cultural exchange where students here can learn about Palestine and Palestinians can learn about Britain. To this end we would also like to set up a website where students from both Unions can interact. We will also try and find a way of funding some sort of exchange, hopefully fairly soon.

I hope that this twinning agreement can be the start of a close relationship between our two Unions and a platform from which we can help the struggle for a free Palestine.

In solidarity,

Rob Owen,
General Secretary
University of Manchester Student Union

19 year old second year Business Administration student of An Najah National University.

Times are hard – this is the only thing I can say about the current situation in Palestine.

For me, being a student at An Najah University is a privilege. It is a rich academic and social experience. An Najah is the largest of the 11 Palestinian universities. In this academic year, it covers the needs of over 16,000 students from all over the West Bank.

But there exists this awkward little fact. An Najah is located in the West Bank city of Nablus which is completely surrounded by Israeli occupation forces. Every road leading out of Nablus is controlled by Israeli soldiers – some call it a siege. This means the movement of students, including myself, is interrupted, delayed and sometimes completely prevented.

There are about 10,000 students who travel into Nablus everyday from nearby towns and villages, and they have to show their ID, empty their bags, prove who they are looking down the barrel of a gun – just to go to classes. This is not an international border – it is the occupied West Bank.

For me, I live just 7km from Nablus. Or at least I used to. Before the circle of checkpoints closed in, I could reach Nablus in 10 minutes taking the direct road over the hill. This road has been closed by the Israeli occupation force, and now my journey takes me on a big detour of 25km. It now takes 45 minutes on a good day, but usually it takes at least two hours. It used to cost 3 shekels, now it costs 12 shekels.

Now – I was given the honour to speak on behalf of my fellow students, so it is my duty to speak their thoughts. I know for a fact that the two biggest problems we share are -

Transport difficulties – if we could, we would all live in Nablus to avoid the checkpoints. But we can’t. There aren’t dormitories, and anyway, we couldn’t afford it.

Which brings me to the second problem, the occupation generally and the Nablus blockade specifically is making us poorer and poorer. It is getting harder for our families to support us through university.

This is our situation. We don’t want to be pitied, we just want the outside world to know about our situation, to understand our side of the story, to see what it is like. Twinning with your university will bring us closer to your experience – it will show us even more the freedom we lack, but it will also bring you closer to our experience.

I look forward to our future conversations and comparisons.

University of Manchester Students Union twins with An Najah university Nablus Palestine University of Manchester Students Union passed a motion to twin their Students Union with An Najah University in Nablus Palestine.

The Student Union General Meeting on Wednesday 7th March 2007 was attended by over 600 students and the motion which acknowledged the detrimental effect of the Israeli occupation on the right to education of Palestinian students was passed by a majority of over 50 votes.

The motion stated that students in Palestine have had their right to education consistently denied by the Israeli Occupation: checkpoints, attacks on Universities and limitations on movement which seriously hinder the ability of students in Palestine to learn and that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that everyone has the ‘right to education’.

The union will now lobby Manchester University to provide at least 3 scholarships to Palestinian students who wish to study at the university of Manchester as well as to support the Palestinian students in their “Right to Education” campaign and for their basic Human Rights within the territories of mandate Palestine and refugees.

For more information contact:
Action Palestine
info@actionplestine.org
www.actionpalestine.org

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=20305

Nablus – Ma’an – An-Najah National University in the northern West Bank city of Nablus is preparing to twin with the universities of Manchester and London through cooperation between the student unions in these universities.

The University of Manchester Student Union passed a motion in its entirety on 7 March to go ahead with a twinning agreement with their counterparts at An-Najah University.

The agreement aims to support the Palestinian right to education, particularly in reference to the obstacles that face Palestinian university students such as curfews, checkpoints, barriers and the separation wall. The future of Palestinian universities is under threat in this way, and, besides, these measures are violations of international law which maintains the right to education and to live in dignity.

The articles of the motion include the suggestion to provide at least three scholarships for Palestinian students who wish to study at the University of Manchester. They will also try to persuade the administration to drop the international tuition fees for Palestinian students, so that they pay the same as local students.

In a different regard, the Palestinian student association in the University of London has launched a campaign to teach people about the Palestinian crisis and the obstacles facing Palestinian students. The agreement to be signed with the University of London aims to strengthen cooperation between the student unions of both universities through exchanging visits and pointing out the impact of the Israeli occupation on the daily life of Palestinian students.

The twinning between the universities will also include the establishment of an exhibition of photographs in addition to field trips aimed at achieving joint cultural education.

This article is from the students news paper (student direct)

Dear Editor,

This is a quick letter in response to the letter published last week in Student Direct to give a completely different account about the Action Palestine Society.

I have attended many of the public events hosted by Action Palestine, the documentaries they have shown, their informative meetings and the imaginative art exhibitions. I wish to congratulate the society on the great work that has been done with very little recourses, also taking into account that it is a relatively new society but is growing in numbers quite rapidly and becoming more and more popular after every event!

The purpose of the society is to educate people about the Occupation of Palestine – to enlighten them about the situation there and to give a voice to Palestinians, who are so often ignored by the media and the world. The society has managed to put on a wide variety of events: educational, discussion forums, documentary and film showings, video links with people in Palestine and the amazing cultural events. They have allowed Palestinians, Jews and British activists to stand up against the Occupation and racism.

I found the events very informing and useful; a wide range of speakers and organisations shared their experiences and opinions with audiences. As well as this, the audience was able to comment and have their questions answered by the speakers. I felt at ease and not at all inhibited to put my hand up and ask questions as the atmosphere is always so relaxed and every one is open minded and ready to share their views. There is no doubt that Action Palestine has had a positive impact on campus, as the society allows all sorts of people to join in and feel welcome, in helping out or even just enquiring as to what Action Palestine is all about. I would encourage every student to go along to one of their meetings and make your mind up for yourself.

Ahmed Hadad

(link)

London, March 2(IRNA) Students at the University of Manchester in northern England are backing the Palestinians right to education by seeking links with al-Najah University in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

The right to education is being led by Birzeit University in the West Bank, which has been closed down by Israeli military forces 15 times in its history.

In a motion to be debated next Wednesday, the University of Manchester Students Union (UMSU) is proposing to send a twinning invitation to their al-Najah counterparts and erect a plaque `Palestine and the Right to Education’ in its Steve Biko building.

Over one third of the Palestinian population are students in full-time school or university education, but the Israeli army has shelled and destroyed eight of the 11 universities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since September 2000, the motion says.

According to a copy obtained by IRNA, it also points out that students are prevented from attending al-Najah University by Israel’s illegal barrier wall and two major checkpoints that enclose the entire city.

Students from Gaza are already banned from reaching the eight Palestinian Universities in the West Bank.

In the case of Birzeit, the number of Gazan students was reduced from 350 to only 35 by April 2005, UMSU said.

The motion warns that the future of many Palestinian universities are at “grave risk” due to the blanket curfews, 700 Israeli army roadblocks and other military obstacles, including the recently constructed barrier wall.

These “violate international law, including provisions against collective punishment and guarantees for the protection of civilian populations under military occupation, students’ right to education and fundamental rights of human beings,” it said.

UMSU said it was raising the concerns with colleagues in the National Union of Students to encourage further support for the right to education for Palestinian students.

It warned that a whole generation of Palestinian students were denied an education when Israel closed down all Palestinian universities and the majority of schools by military orders between 1988 and 1992.

(This document was produced but the University of Manchester Students’ Union Campaigns to counter all the false rumours that were being spread on campus to stop the twining motion, home fees for asylum seekers motion and boycotted Coca-Cola motions. Also to counter the very biased approach most of the media covered the meeting)

The Union General Meeting on Wednesday was the biggest for a long time with over 600 students attending. You may have heard a lot of rumours, but here is what was decided and why.

Why twin with a Palestinian university?
The Israeli Occupation of Palestine has consistently denied students their fundamental Right to Education. The Right to Education is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of human rights and it is these rights, that are inalienable for all people wherever they are in the world, that we think, as a Union, should be respected. The motion to twin with Al-Najah University was a symbolic gesture to our Palestinian brothers and sisters to remind them that that they are not alone in their struggle to live like human beings. Many Palestinians feel isolated and let down by the world, this twinning motion shows that we recognise their struggle and offer our support to their cause.

Is the University of Al Najah a supporter of terrorism?
There have been suicide bombers who have come from Al Najah. This does not mean that the university supports the actions of these people. The 14000 students of Al Najah should not be held collectively responsible for the actions of a few. It is not this institution that is responsible for the creation of suicide bombers, but the oppressive actions of Israel, through occupation and oppression they endanger their own citizens.

Why do we oppose international fees for asylum seekers?
Asylum seekers are the most vulnerable people in this society, often slipping into the “destitution trap”. They are refused the right to work in this country and given £35 a week in food vouchers to support themselves. We believe that charging fees of over£8000 amounts to the removal of their right to education, which is enshrined in international law.

Why have we boycotted Coca-Cola?
Coke’s human rights abuses and environmental disregard is well documented. War on Want found that the Coke bottling plants in India were draining vast quantities of ground water to produce their soft drinks. This leads to water shortages in an already regularly drought riden country. Wells dry up, farmers can’t irigate crops, so crops fail and poverty is perpetuated. The bottling plants also spew out untreated toxic waste, which poisons any water that remains. Generous as they are Coca-Cola offered the farmers effected a compensation package in the form of fertilizer, fertilizer that contained dangerous levels of the toxic chemicals, cadmium and lead. In colombia at least 9 workers at Coke bottling plant have been murdered since 1994 and hundreds have been kidnapped or intimidated by paramillitaries for trying to trade unionise. New York councellor Monserat found that these abuses went on, if not with the complicity, at least with the knowledge of the directors of Coca Cola. Will this effect union revenues? It shouldn’t effect the money the union takes on soft drinks. sussex, who recently boycotted Coke, found that the takings on drinks did not fall at all. The alternative that they provide is actually cheaper for the union to purchase than coke, so profits have gone up. A sound bussiness decision as well as an ethical one.

Shouldn’t students make up their own minds?
As a democrtatic, membership organisation we have the right to decide what to sell in our union. The union isn’t just another place to get cheap drinks or see a gig, it’s an organisation that has principals and values. Coke doesn’t live up to the standards that we expect from a company and so we will not sell their products in our union. We beleive that as a Union we should not make money from, or give money to a company that is responsible for scuh human rights abuses, environemntal destruction, Union busting, displacement and murder. Until this changes there will be no Coke sold in the Union.

Will it have any effect?
With other Unions across the UK joining this boycott we are already costing Coke a lot of money and prestige. If this motion gets passed at NUS it will mean that Coke will lose their single largest contract in the UK. Because the Union workers in India and colombia have called for this action we beleive that such an enourmous cut in profits and the damage to the reputatation that this would cause would force Coca Cola to reconsider their management and support of human Rights violations.

What about the bullying motion?
Bullying is an everyday reality for people in all walks of life. This motion clarifys the unions opposition to all forms of bullying and highlights the fact that bullying goes on around campus.

This article is from the students news paper (student direct)

This Wednesday at 1.30pm, your Students Union will meet to discuss and vote on a number of serious issues. It will discuss Bullying on Campus, a boycott of Coca-Cola and the difficulties faced by asylum seekers who want to study here in Manchester. It will also discuss, however, a proposal to twin our Student Union with the Student Union of Al-Najah National University in Nablus, Palestine. It is this motion that I want to talk about in this article.

As I write this article, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) is busying kidnapping the families of ‘wanted’ men in the city of Nablus – Operation ‘Hot Winter’ is a full scale invasion of the West Bank city by the Israeli army. The offensive operation, which has been ongoing since Sunday morning and is now in its fourth day, has already seen one civilian shot dead and over 45 people, including an Al-Najah student, kidnapped by the IDF. For three out of four of those days, the University has been closed because of a curfew imposed by the Occupation.

Although ‘Hot Winter’ is a large operation, it is simply another episode in a catalogue of attacks on Palestinian who, in the West Bank, have been living under Occupation since 1967. The Human Rights violations committed by the IDF since the start of the Occupation and particularly since the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in Palestine are numerous and well documented by both the UN and NGOs. However, as students I think that it is important for us to consider the experience of our fellow students in Palestine, especially as over a third of the Palestinian population is in full-time education. The Right to Education is enshrined in international law in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which states that “Everyone has the right to education”, and in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) which recognizes that “Education is both a human right in itself and an indispensable means of realizing other human rights.” Unfortunately, the students of Al-Najah University have had these Rights consistently ignored.

The twinning motion this Wednesday is designed to show Palestinians, Israelis and the wider world exactly what the Occupation is doing to Palestinian education. It is a simple act of solidarity that can do a lot to break down the feeling of isolation from which Palestinian students suffer. It is also an important platform for the campaign in Britain. Our government is a crucial Israeli ally – the invasion of Lebanon in the summer was only maintained by Tony Blair’s support for US policy – and we must put pressure on our government to break the link between US Imperialism and Israel. This motion is a step towards justice in Palestine but it is also an important end itself. It can provide real relief to people struggling against the Occupation and break down some of the preconceptions we hold as a society. It will also provide hope to people who suffer under some of the worst oppression on the planet.

I urge you to support Human Rights in Palestine, to vote for an end to racism and oppression and to give students living under Occupation a ray of hope – let them know that they are not alone.

This article is from the students news paper (student direct)

Dear Editor,

I am writing because I was saddened by the tone of the front page article in the last Student Direct of the Autumn Semester (4/12/06, ‘Tensions Flare At Palestine Demonstration’). The stunt on the 29th November was planned in order to raise awareness of the daily humiliation experienced by Palestinian students living under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. Many have to travel through multiple checkpoints in order to get to campus, often being detained or turned away by IDF soldiers in completely arbitrary decisions about their right to travel. The effect of the Occupation has a profound effect on students in Palestine with many of them having to resit semesters and restarting entire years due to the Israel policy of periodically declaring towns and cities ‘off limits’. Students aren’t just affected by missed class time, however. They find it hard to get the resources necessary to complete their degrees and often suffer from lack of even basic textbooks. On top of this, the IDF often target Universities as centres of resistance, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage on one of their many punitive raids.

Action Palestine believes that education is a fundamental human right and that this right is being denied in Palestine by the IDF Occupiers. This, however, is only one of the many illegal actions that Israel has taken in the West Bank. Their Apartheid Wall (or ‘Seperation Fence’ as Israel calls it) is completely illegal and they have been ordered to halts its construction by various international justice bodies. The Wall separates Palestinians from their jobs, their schools and their families and simply constitutes a land grab by Israel in contravention to over 70 Security Council Resolutions. The symbolic importance of the Wall is the reason why we chose to use a mock up of it in our stunt.

The stunt on the 29th November coincided with the United Nation’s Day of Solidarity with Palestine. The demonstration was peaceful and sought only to highlight a fraction of the humiliation that Palestinians suffer daily. Unfortunately, certain students within our University reacted with venom to our criticism of Israel’s Occupation. The intimidation that members of Action Palestine suffered at their hands is completely unacceptable. Many of us were labelled terrorists, something that has a far more malicious meaning to some of our activists actually from Palestine. The highly organised and spiteful opposition that we suffered was, sadly, only the most recent personification of the pro-apartheid Israeli lobby on campus that wilfully tries to deceive students about the very real injustices that are occurring in Palestine. It is partly as a result of their lies that we have such a mountain to climb when it comes to building support for the rights of our fellow Palestinian Students.

I would urge all of you with a sense of justice to get involved with our campaign to defend the human rights of the people of Palestine, who have so often been forgotten and betrayed by our own Government. No person should have to suffer the humiliation and oppression that is heaped on them every single day and it is only with a concerted effort that we, here at Manchester University, can change that. Student activists in Britain were important in defeating apartheid in South Africa (despite vociferous opposition from racist groups) and we can achieve a similar victory over apartheid in Palestine if everyone gets involved. Please come to our meeting on the 5th February at 6.00pm in the Students Union with Israeli Arab Jamila Asleh to learn more.

In Solidarity,
Andy Cunningham
ActionPalestine Committee Member