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

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

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

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

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

Before you read the following article ask yourself some questions. Why in two weeks were over a 110 Palestinians killed in Gaza? Why were buildings and infrastructure bulldozed and completely destroyed? Why, in June 2006, did the UN World Food Program report that over half of the Palestinian population were unable to meet basic food requirements? Why does the US veto any responses made by the UN to the killing and destruction? Why? Why? Why? The most important question, however, is what are you doing about it? The least that can be asked of anyone is to educate themselves on the true injustices that occur in Palestine every single day. Many of these atrocities are happening because of people’s ignorance and lack of knowledge of the real situation. Well you can start right here and right now, the following article is a quick guide to the history of the conflict in Palestine and the brutal, illegal, occupation.

The Palestinian issue first arose towards the end of WW1, when the British government (through the Balfour Declaration) first established Palestine as the ‘official’ home for the Jewish people. The Declaration had a massive effect after WW2 when the horrors of fascism and the Holocaust led to large scale Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe. The new immigrants walked into a country at war with British colonialism – both Jews and Arabs were carrying out terrorist actions against the British presence in their country. In 1947 Britain turned the problem over to the United Nations who, in turn, proposed the partitioning of Palestine into two
independent states: the Jewish ‘Israel’ and the Arab ‘Palestine’. However, Israel decided it wanted more, occupying over 80% of what was legally Palestinian territory. The Palestinians were left with only two regions, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Many Palestinians fled to neighbouring countries such as Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria creating the world’s largest refugee population, still today Palestinians are found all over the world without the right to return to their homeland.

During the Lebanese war thousands of Palestinian refugees were massacred in the camps of Sabra and Shatila, a war crime that Ariel Sharon was involved in. In December 1987, the uprising against the Israeli occupation began in the occupied Palestinian territories, an uprising known in Arabic as the Intifada. This resulted in heavy loss of life and mass injuries among the Palestinian civilians thanks to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) inability or unwillingness to distinguish between civilian and military targets. A quote made by an Israeli General at the time, Ahron Ze’evi, director of military intelligence said: “Better Palestinian mothers should cry than Jewish mothers.”

It’s this kind of attitude that explains the Israeli State’s lack of remorse towards their cold blooded and brutal treatment of the Palestinians. Unfortunately the present situation is still as dire as it ever was, as the conditions in Gaza demonstrate today: the extreme desperation of the Palestinians and the dreadful conditions in which they live are forced to live. In terms of the economic structure of Gaza, the IDF has
deliberately destroyed power stations, water supplies, bridges, roads, offices of the Palestinian Authority and other aspects of civilian infrastructure – all of which are violations of international law. What’s more, the closing of cross points, and the almost complete closing of the Erez cross point, has limited food supplies, gas and accessibility to healthcare. In hospitals and healthcare centres, water supplies are insufficient and fuel for generating electricity is in short supply. Loss of innocent civilian life in Palestine is astronomical. In just the past months, 24 Palestinians are said to have been killed in just 24 hours between 6th and 7 July. Since the incursion began in the summer, 47 civilians have been murdered and 120 injured in Gaza alone. This collective punishment of a civilian population is expressly forbidden under the Geneva Convention and constitutes a war crime. The arrest of members of the democratically elected Palestinian government further blocks the progress of the
country and any moves towards peace. As does the daily random arrests of civilians who are imprisoned without trial, or even conviction, for an unlimited time with no legal rights. Continuous bombing of the Gaza strip again results in tremendous loss of life and damage to infrastructure, thus preventing Palestinians from ever recovering. In parallel to this military operation, the humanitarian situation of the Palestinian population is dramatically worsening. In 2006, the Israeli government decided to cease the restitution of VAT taxes and customs duties which it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, in violation of its legal obligations. On top of that the Western governments, as well as the Council of the European Union, have decided to stop their aid, contributing further to the Palestinian plight. Close to 41% of the Palestinian population has been deprived of resources since January, as a result to the non-payment of civil servants wages. Many banks in fear of legal or political sanctions for having contacts with ‘Terrorist Organisations’ have shut down accounts of Palestinian organizations and individuals, therefore the payments of salaries to the Palestinian public servants in schools and health care departments are not guaranteed.

The latest humiliation heaped upon the Palestinian population is the Apartheid wall or, as it is known by the Israelis, the ‘separation fence’: a concrete wall eight metres high and 650feet long, equipped with surveillance posts and electric barbed wire, bordered by trenches and patrolled by soldiers! It is being built through the West Bank in an attempt to isolate Palestinians from each other and as a cynical land grab on the part of the Israelis. As any action taken by the Israelis, the wall will hurt the development of the Palestinians immensely – it will hinder accessibility to water resources, separate Palestinians from their land, divide families and cut off workers from their jobs. Even the olive trees weren’t spared as over 100,000 were removed to allow access for the monstrous wall.

Aren’t these flagrant and widespread violations of international humanitarian law and fundamental human rights by the Israeli government enough to make you at least question why is this being allowed to happen? Doesn’t it offer some explanation as to the radical actions of many Palestinians in their desperate call for help? If you are interested in learning more and educating yourself further on the suffering of the Palestinians join the Action Palestine Society. Action Palestine is a relatively new student society, whose main aim is to bring to light the situation in Palestine and educate people on the injustices that are occurring every day as a result of a brutal Occupation. Action Palestine is an independent group set up to campaign for the rights of Palestinians, their right to basic essentials, their right not to be shot, tortured, bombed or arrested and their right to live a life of human dignity. If you want to know more, come to our meeting ‘What’s Really Happening in Palestine?’ on Wednesday 22nd November at the Student’s Union or contact manuni@actionpalestine.org. Whatever you do, don’t just turn away – we must fight for justice and peace.