Blog
The March of Return
A traveler I am, and a navigator, and every day I discover a new region within my soul.
Khalil Gibran
I felt rather strange the other day during a presentation titled "Creating Impact on International Youth in Palestine: Challenges and Opportunities." I was speaking at Birzeit University to a group of Palestinian Americans from Project Hope, a Palestinian youth initiative that seeks to connect young adults who live outside of Palestine with the city of Ramallah and to awaken, or cultivate, the spirit of volunteerism within the larger Palestinian community.[i] Repeatedly, I reminded...
Community and Public Health
When I returned to Palestine in September 1978 to join the Biology Department faculty at Birzeit University, I found that the faculty, staff, and students were involved in community development and outreach activities.
Community service was and is an integral part of the University’s mission (as central to its mission as a commitment to academic excellence); and faculty members had initiated the Voluntary Work Program (Munir Fasheh), the Archeology Program (Albert Glock), the Literacy and Adult Education Program (Khalil Mahshi and later, Hiyam Abu Ghazaleh), and the Research Center (...
Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ Will Doom Peace Between Israelis and Palestinians
Despite repeatedly announcing his intention to present a bold, sweeping plan to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, U.S. President Donald Trump continues to keep everyone waiting. If he ever does present his plan, it is set to backfire, for several reasons.
For one thing, the Trump administration has been shunned by Palestinians since it recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last December. Palestinians were angered by the move, arguing that the U.S. government violated its role as mediator and sponsor of the peace process by adopting Israel’s position on Jerusalem. Palestinian...
A Bastion of Democracy
How Birzeit University’s Student Council elections became the gauge of Palestinian politics
Back in the summer of 2015, when I was a student in my third year at Birzeit University, a group of American and European graduate students came to visit the university’s campus as part of a student-exchange program. Being an English major who, ostensibly, could hold a conversation in English, I was invited to welcome the students and guide them on a tour of the campus, to be followed by a Q&A session on anything and everything they had in mind.
Now, if you’re an international student...
Palestine still the issue: Reflections on my recent visit to Birzeit University
I find it hard to believe that my recent visit to Birzeit University (BZU) lasted only five weeks – the hills, the sky, the soft, sandy colour of local stones, the colleagues who hosted me, the students I connected with, they all feel so familiar, as if I had known both people and landscape for a long time. And yet it was indeed only five weeks!
I arrived in BZU early May, in the company of my husband Julian Field, thanks to an academic scholarship provided by the Fulbright Commission, yet in no small part as well thanks to the effort and hospitality of Prof. Randa Nasser, her colleagues...
40 Years of Fobzu: a history of supporting Palestinian education
Since 1978, Fobzu has been working to promote the advancement of Palestinian education under occupation and in exile.
Over the past 40 years, Fobzu has furthered the cause of Palestinian education by raising awareness in the UK about the needs of Palestinian students and academics and their struggle, supporting educational projects and providing scholarships and bursaries to students in financial need.
40 Years of Supporting Palestinian Education
During its early years, Fobzu supported Birzeit University by raising awareness among the UK academic community about the difficulties of...
Meet Birzeit University’s Dream Team
We are Duha Abdallah, Hadeel Salameh, Habsa Awawdeh, Samera albalawi, and Daived Habash, the Dream Team. We are a group of marketing students whose dreams went beyond the requirements of the Public Relations course that banded us together.
The Public Relations course, MKET231, requires a group of five students to present an Important Final Project, so we decided to improve society in a way that cannot be forgotten. We came up with a remarkable idea to help students at Birzeit University make a name for themselves.
The idea, named BZU’s Got Talent, will create massive buzz once it...
A Student in the Late Sixties
I studied at Birzeit College between 1968 and 1970. In 1968, there were about 168 students total (freshmen and sophomores, arts and sciences), and in 1969, about 196.
So it was like an extended family, and in fact it was the first setup when we could experience the multiplicity of Palestinians in terms of geography and class. We had students from Gaza and Nablus, it was a coeducational school, which added to the flavor of the place, and it focused on lots of cultural activities.
Gabi Baramki and Tania Nasir organized the production of Gilbert and Sullivan musicals like “Trial by Jury”...
Joint Friends of Birzeit University and student union officers' statement in support of the Right to Education for Palestinians
Following the storming of the university and abduction of the President of the Student Council,
Birzeit University, the Right to Education in Palestine and Palestinian students have called for the support of students and academic communities worldwide to stand up in defence of their right to education.
Please join us in showing your solidarity at this critical moment.
On Wednesday 7th March in the mid-afternoon, armed IDF units in civilian clothing forced their way onto Birzeit University campus. One unit detained university security guards, confiscated their weapons and began firing...
Education, and Decolonization: On Not Reading Ibn Khaldun in Palestine
Western hegemony, colonization, imperial and neocolonial domination over the Third World has been sustained through knowledge production that has become hegemonic on a global scale since the rise of western modernity.
I argue that settler colonialism in Palestine took place and has been maintained through that structure. Formal independence of previously colonized countries has not led to real decolonization, not only because these countries continued to be economically and otherwise dependent on Western powers, but also importantly if not more so, due to dependency on knowledge produced...
