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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

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).

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.