Thousands of students gather to hear their election candidates debate on the University campus. There are currently 7,095 students at Birzeit University, 81.3% of which voted in these Student Council elections.
Thousands of students heard each candidate in a 2 hour debate, chaired by the a special committee of University staff dedicated to Student Council affairs.
At around 2pm, 7 Israeli jeeps turned up at the foot of Birziet University campus, harassing and intimidating students as they walked around the campus to reach the polling stations. Some students threw stones at the jeeps making it clear that Israeli military presence is not welcomed at an educational institution, especially given it’s long history of harassement of students and academics. Israeli soldiers retaliated with gas cannisters and live ammunition.
Students dodge live ammunition fired at them by Israeli soldiers from a distance of metres away. 4 students were injured.
And we think we have it bad, complaining about university parking spaces or food choices. The courage of these students is…God bless them and protect them.
moi, amen to that. my biggest college complaint was lack of spaces in courses I wanted to register in. a far cry from being shot by soldiers
So I guess it wasn’t such a bad thing that I had to walk through snow and ice to get to my college, huh? This is just sickening, especially so that it is not covered by the media like it should be. EFT.
This happened ages ago also, before the second intifada. Where Israelies came down in parachutes into birzeit. Back then they were still following the Oslo agreement, and thus they couldnt come in by foot or car because its considered AREA B, but as it showed the agreement didnt specify that they couldnt come down from the sky!!
That story was told to me ages back, when I was still at Birziet Uni. They took many students and entered Girls dorms, including my cousins, whose friend fainted from horror!