It
was at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem where Arab-Palestinian students had
organized their first Arab Students Committee (ASC) in the 1958/59 school year.
Similar committees have since mushroomed in the rest of the Israeli
universities. Following the Hebrew University, more ASCs were established at
Tel-Aviv University in 1968, Haifa University and the Technion Institute in
1973, and at Ben-Gurion and Bar-Ilan Universities in 1975. The National Union
of Arab Students (NUAS), as an umbrella organization, was established in
1974/75.
Palestinian
student groups linked themselves with political organizations throughout the
community who shared their political references and ideological affiliations.
In fact, the Palestinian Student Movement is considered an extension of the
larger Palestinian National Movement in Israel, which in turn considers itself
as part of the Palestinian National Movement as a whole. The main goal of the
student organizations has been to maintain and assert their collective-national
identity as part of the Arab-Palestinian people despite its systematic
repression within the oppressive political reality in which they live. As such,
student activities at the university can be viewed as one of the most
comprehensive national and political educational processes Palestinian youth
experience.
It
is a documented fact that the educational system for the Arab-Palestinians in
Israel within the current state of political arrangements is one of the most
oppressive political tools used by the authorities. As such, the entire
educational system including the universities, has been systematically
manipulated in order to inflict social, economic and political control, mainly
aiming at stripping these Palestinians of their national and cultural identity.
The implicit goal is to educate Palestinian youth for a special type of
collective identity that does not challenge the status quo of Israel as a
Jewish state. Despite all this, there has been evidence of a growing resistance
among Palestinian students to such an oppressive and colonizing education. The Palestinian
Student Movement in the universities has always plaid a vital role in
preserving Palestinian national identity and intensifying their struggle for
collective existence in their homeland.
As
part of the Palestinian National Movement, the Palestinians in Israel were
influenced by regional and international political developments such as the
outbreak of the Intifada in 1987, the collapse of USSR in the late 1980s, the
Gulf War in 1991, and the Oslo agreements between Israel and the PLO. Being extremely
sensitive to political developments in their community, Palestinian students in
Israel were also affected by these dramatic regional changes. The early years
of the 1990s, following the Gulf War, witnessed the most quiescent years in
Palestinian student activism since they established their first organization in
1958. When today’s generation of Palestinian students came to the universities,
they only found “stories” about the history of Palestinian student activism,
something that was in full gear a few years prior to their arrival. The vacuum
created by the lack of student activism during these years, was an unusual
component of the atmosphere on many campuses.
Motivated
by their national awareness and their youthful energy, they soon began
rebuilding and reactivating the student movement all over again. The current
wave of protest indicates the great potential inherent in the student
population and their ability to intensify, direct and lead the struggle to a
more promising future. Realizing the disastrous implications of the Oslo
agreements for all Palestinians, and the consequential confusion among the
Palestinians in 1948 in particular, the young generation of Palestinian student
activists are once again spearheading the struggle to a better future.
The
Current Uprising of Palestinian Students in the Israeli Universities
Following
the martyrdom of Hajjah Shikhah Abu Salih from Sakhnin during the Land Day
Rally on March 30, 2000 -- held annually by the Palestinians in 1948 and
elsewhere-- Palestinian students in the Israeli universities are once again
asserting their revolutionary role as a living segment of the Palestinian
people. Their protests lead to a series of clashes with the police and the
security forces. The growing collective anger and alienation among Palestinian
students in the Israeli universities have been a natural response to the racist
policy and oppression against them and their community. Their political
activities and protests after the Land Day have lead the authorities of Haifa University to
tighten their already oppressive
measure against any form of political activism on campus. Ironically, political
activism on campus becomes illegal only when Palestinian students are
concerned.
The Haifa University security services continue to apply severe
measures against what they define as “illegal” student activism. They
repeatedly threatened Palestinian student activists to return to security
practices of the 1980s when police forces were brought into the university to
halt Palestinian student demonstrations. Back then, Palestinian student riots
ended with 24 detainees - three of them were arrested for more than two months,
11 were injured and treated in the hospital and 10 others were expelled from
the university.
The current clashes irrupted on
Monday, April 3, 2000 when
hundreds of Palestinian students at Haifa University marched through campus in
a peaceful demonstration condemning the murder of Hajjah Shikhah Abu Salih from
Sakhnin during the Land Day Rally. The demonstration was organized by the Arab
Students Committee immediately upon receiving the news of the death of Hajjah
Shikhah. The students marched while raising Palestinian flags and flags in
black to represent their grief. The security authorities of the university
responded with repressive measures to this spontaneous collective action of the
Palestinian students. They were also joined by a right wing racist group of
Jewish students who were shouting at Palestinian students “go to BirZeit
University” and “be thankful that we let you live here.” A brutal physical
attack on Palestinian student demonstrators by the security forces and racist
Jewish students left six of them slightly injured.
Clashes at Haifa University irrupted
again on Tuesday, April 4, 2000 when Palestinian students displayed a photo of
the martyr Shikhah Abu Salih decorated
with flowers. The security authorities of the university demanded that
the students remove the photo and the flowers, but they refused to do so.
Again, right wing racist Jewish students arrived at the scene and verbal
confrontation irrupted between them and the Palestinian students. One of the
Palestinian student leaders, Raja Zaatrah was arrested by a police that was
rushed to the scene by the university authorities. Raja was released under the
pressure of protesting Palestinian students who surrounded the police vehicle,
but was arrested by the police again after the demonstration. He was released
later but was banned by the police from interring the university for 10 days.
Furthermore, a Palestinian woman Khulud Badawi, the president of the Arab
Students Committee was summoned to the police station for interrogation at
midnight of the same day.
On Wednesday, April 5, 2000, the Arab
Student Committee at Haifa University called for a strike which was observed by
the majority of Palestinian students. A large number of Palestinian students
gathered in the hall. The Dean of students’ affairs along with some of the
security forces arrived at the scene and demanded that Palestinian students end
the strike. About 400 gathering Palestinian students at Haifa University were
joined by solidarity delegations of Palestinian students who arrived from the
Technion Institute, Tel-Aviv University and other colleges.
At the same day, a mass gathering was organized by
Palestinian students at Haifa University which was attended by Palestinian
leaders Essam Makhul and Muhammad Barakah
from the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, Awad Abd al-Fattah
from Al-Tajammu al-Watani a-Demuqrati, and Muhammad As'ad Kana'anah from Abna
al-Balad Movement. Furthermore, solidarity greetings were sent to Palestinian students at Haifa
University by Dr. George Habash secretary general of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine and Laila Khaled, a life long activist of the PFLP.
A meeting between the above Palestinian leaders and
the university authorities was planned to take place immediately after the mass
gathering. Ironically, the
university authorities prevented representatives of the Arab Students Committee
from attending this meeting claiming that they do not represent the
Arab-Palestinian students on campus. The Palestinian leadership delegation
refused to attend the meeting in protest of the university’s racist stand of
not recognizing the ASC as a representative of the students.
On Sunday, April 9, 2000, a demonstration in
solidarity with Palestinian students at Haifa University took place at the West
Galilee College in Acre. A
Palestinian student leader Ahmad Kassam was stopped by the college’s security
guards who found communiqués in his belongings. They called state police officers to the site who beat him
badly and arrested him. Palestinian students demonstrating on campus demanded
his immediate release, but instead the police forces attacked the demonstration
and arrested two more students. Later during the day all students were released
on bail.
Another demonstration in solidarity with
Palestinian students at Haifa University took place at Tell Hai College. About
120 of the 700 Palestinian students attending this college participated in the
demonstration defying the threats directed at them by the college’s president.
It is worth noting that this is the first time in history that Palestinian
students in this college participate in direct action.
On Tuesday, April 11, 2000, Palestinian students at
the Hebrew University held a demonstration in solidarity with their fellow
Palestinian students at Haifa University. After being denied permission to
demonstrate on campus, Palestinian students held their demonstration off
campus. Immediately, a group of racist right wing Jewish students organized a
counter demonstration on the other side of the street. As usual, they chanted
racist slogans against Palestinian students such as “leave the country” and “go
to BirZeit University.” About 150 Palestinian students participating in the
demonstration were brutally attacked by the Israeli police forces, while the
Jewish students were left alone. The excessive use of force by the police
resulted in the injury of 12 Palestinian students. Another 13 Palestinian
students were detained under the accusation of raising the Palestinian flag.
Five Palestinian students from the Hebrew University Jerusalem came out of the
interrogation room with broken legs and arms. They were attacked by the police
forces during the demonstration and taken into the “security room” inside the
university. While there, they were physically beaten and tortured during the
interrogation. It is only on the police state of Israel that an academic institution
such as the Hebrew University designates one of its rooms for the police to use
it as a torture centers for Palestinian student activists!
On Wednesday, April 12, 2000 another solidarity
demonstration was organized by Palestinian students at the University of
Tel-Aviv. The spark which started at Haifa University where the majority of
Palestinian students in Israel study, soon spread to the rest of the
universities. Again, the decision to ban political activism on campus by the
authorities of Haifa University, remains the focus of the riots. Palestinian
students at Haifa University demonstrated again in defiance of such a racist
and antidemocratic decision, and in solidarity with Palestinian students at the
Hebrew University. As an act of defiance, about 200 Palestinian students took
part in a peaceful demonstration on campus demanding the abolishment of the
decision to ban political activism on campus.
On Thursday, Aril 13, 2000 Palestinian students at
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev joined the rash of demonstrations. They too
broke the cycle of few years of political quiescence. Again, for the first time
in history, Palestinian students in the Teachers College in Haifa defy the long
tradition of political repression in their college. They organized a
demonstration to add their voice to the mass movement of Palestinian students
that has been sweeping the country.
No Go Back
Clearly, Palestinian students in the Israeli
universities are back on the political map. Armed with their deep commitment to
their national cause and their determination to reassert, maintain and practice
their collective-national identity as an integral part of the Arab-Palestinian
people, they accept nothing less than their full national rights. The current
clashes, following the Land Day,
came as an indication of the historical and natural role Palestinians
assign to their land as a means of national survival. The strategic cooperation
between the community and the students in the struggle over the land and
identity indicates the importance of the historical role Palestinian students
play in the national struggle. Not only that, but given the recent political
confusion among the Palestinians in Israel over the past few years, one can
safely argue that the students are taking the lead in putting us back on the
right track for freedom. There is no doubt that they need all the help and
support they can receive from local and international progressive and freedom
loving organizations.