Final exams fall on Saturday and this closure will delay this semester and our commencement will slip back: a Palestinian student.

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.