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Final exams fall on Saturday and this closure will delay this semester and our commencement will slip back: a Palestinian student.
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By
Awad al-Ragoub, IOL Palestine correspondent
WEST
BANK, January 16 (IslamOnline) - Palestinian students voiced their
anger at the closure of the Islamic University and the Polytechnic
University in the southern West Bank town of Al-Khalil (Hebron) on
Wednesday, January 15, by the Israeli occupation troops for 14 days
for a period of time that may extend to 6 months, depriving some 4500
students from their basic right of education.
Speaking
to IslamOnline, Hossam Dweik, a student at Polytechnic University,
dismissed the Israeli decision as “arbitrary”, pointing out that
this closure would take its toll on the students.
“Final
exams start on Saturday and this closure will delay this semester and
our commencement will slip back,” Dweik said. “Student from other
towns will also bear the brunt of this closure, since they cannot go
back to their towns such as Jenin, Tulkarem and Nablus.”
“My
three brothers and I came from Bethlehem and it is difficult for us to
go back to our native town under such deplorable conditions.
“I
was about to receive my graduation certificate and my dreams are all
but gone due to the closure decision,” said Ashraf Al-Takrori, a
student at the Polytechnic Institute.
Unfair
For
his part, Dr. Dawoud Al-Za’tri, President of the Polytechnic
University, dismissed the Israeli decision as “unfair,” noting
that he had received at midnight the closure decree inked by Israeli
chief of staff, Major General Moshe Kaplinski.
“After
receiving the decree, the Israeli troops went on a six-hour sabotage
campaign inside the university’s campus, demolished its premises and
confiscated a number of important files and papers,” Dr. Za’tri
told IslamOnline.
The
top academic added that the Israeli decision was, in effect, doing
injustice to the students, calling the Israeli authorities to give the
decision another reading.
The
decision, he added, will hold over the graduation date of the
university’s alumni and painfully affect 300 employees, let alone
the university is currently in dire straits.
An
Arbitrary Decision
Spokesman
for Al-Khalil (Hebron) University, Naeem al-Da’war, said scores of
the Israeli occupation troops stormed the university’s premises on
Wednesday midnight and went on searching the buildings until 3 a.m.
“The
Israeli occupation forces sacked building after building. They
confiscated PCs, important files, smashed doors and sealed main
entries with red wax,” Da’war said.
He
dismissed the Israeli decision as arbitrary and wondered “Why did
the Israeli authorities not close Bar-Ilan University, where Yigal
Amir, the
killer of former Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin,
studied?”
Exams
Will Be Held
For
their part, representatives from both universities held a meeting and
set up a committee, which would be responsible for holding the final
exams as soon as possible.
In
a statement, the committee condemned the Israeli decision and called
on the international community, the U.N. and human rights watchdogs to
do everything in their power to prevent the Israeli authorities from
putting such a decision into effect.
The
committee sent letters to friends all over the world, including
educational institution, human rights organizations, UNESCO, calling
on them to immediately put an end to the Israeli collective punishment
for Palestinian students.
The
committee, in addition, will organize sit-ins and peaceful
demonstrations in protest at the unfair decision.
