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

This Wednesday 7th March the AGM will be discussing a proposal to twin with the Palestinian Al-Najah University which in located in the West Bank city of Nablus, within the ‘Occupied Territories’. We will also be discussing affiliation to the Right to Education campaign to support students, teachers and education in Palestine.

Students at Al-Najah University have to endure unbearable difficulties due to the Israeli Occupation and the repressive measures that the Israeli authorities enforce. Historically, the Israeli Occupation has declared education for Palestinians illegal (1988) and the measures taken by the same authorities in the last few years have made the right to education in Palestine “unofficially illegal” (in the words of one UN commentator).

Having done a course at Al-Najah University and having spent a considerable amount of time on both the main campus in the city of Nablus and the Faculty of Agriculture (Khadouri Campus) in Tulkarem, I feel such a move would have an amazing impact on the morale of the students on campus. All Palestinians, but especially students, feel isolated – they feel let down by a world that seems to care nothing about the Occupation, the nakbah (the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948) and the plight of Palestinian refugees. This feeling of abandonment can be lessened by the twinning motion as it shows there are people out there that care about our plight. Personally I would have loved to have studied in an Al-Najah University which is twinned with a big university abroad and therefore with a smaller feeling of alienation.

I urge every student who is able to be there for the General Meeting on Wednesday March 7th at 1.30pm to come and support the twinning motion – a simple but important step in which you can have a real positive impact on situation.

Mohammed Habash
A student at Al-Najah University (Khadouri Campus).

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