Birzeit University stands in condemnation of the recent attack on its campus

Birzeit University’s community – faculty, staff, and students – protested the infiltration of an undercover Israeli unit of its campus, supported by an Israeli army detachment, and the armed kidnapping of one of its students, 24-year-old engineering student and Head of the Student Council Omar Kiswani.

President of Birzeit University Dr. Abdullatif Abuhijleh called the storming of the university’s campus a “categorical violation of international laws and norms, which forbid and condemn attacks on academic institutions.”

“What happened at Birzeit University is a very serious violation,” added Abuhijleh, “that threatens the lives and future of our students. It is a part and parcel of the Israeli Occupation’s systematic policy to destroy the education process in Palestine.”

Head of Birzeit University’s Union of Employees and Professors, Sameh Abu Awwad, called upon the international community and United Nations agencies to protect Palestinians and Palestinian educational institutions. “The international community must hold Israel accountable for its international law violations,” he said.

Student political parties at the university stood in condemnation of the brutal attack and rejected the statements that “aim to sow discord and attack the university’s students, guards, or student movement.”