[hr-education] No to Tanks, Yes to Education and Freedom of Movement

Birzeit University: No to Tanks, Yes to Education and Freedom of Movement
Siege of Birzeit Continues
Call for International Protest and Intervention

14 March, 2001

Today, most Birzeit University faculty and staff were unable to reach the
University - on what was scheduled as the first day of classes of the
second semester. An Israeli army tank and military outpost searching cars
and checking people's identity cards continue to make travel on the
destroyed Birzeit - Ramallah road an almost impossible ordeal.  These new
obstacles - including new cement blocks placed by the Israeli army - are
witnesses to the cynicism of the new Israeli propaganda campaign.  This
campaign, launched on March 12th in the wake of Palestinian community
protest and growing international concern over Israel's siege and blockade
of Palestinian communities, aims to convince the world that the siege of
Birzeit and other West Bank towns and villages has been eased (or lifted)
and that the new Israeli government, in the words of the Israeli Prime
Minister, is "against collective punishment."

The exchange of cement blocks for trenches, Birzeit University faculty and
staff affirm, may be cosmetic, but does not address the core issue: the
right to freedom of movement of Palestinian residents without the
immediate threat of tanks, trigger-happy soldiers and bloodshed.  For the
University to resume its rightful academic, research and community
outreach activities, and for thousands of students to travel to the
University daily for classes, it is imperative that the military outpost
and tank be removed.  If Israeli soldiers to check, harass and detain
students at will, it is a recipe for further human rights violations,
bloodshed and loss of life.  Rural residents also urgently need to travel
freely to and from Ramallah for medical care, food supplies and
livelihoods.

The present policy of Israeli siege and blockade of Palestinian
communities is a deliberate policy of collective punishment.  Israeli
journalists have revealed that "Operation Bronze" is designed to "divide
up the West Bank and Gaza into 64 separate areas, each of which can be cut
off.." (Ha'aretz, 13 March, 7).  This scheme cuts up the country into tiny
disconnected pieces, bringing the flow of people, essential services and
commercial activities to a near standstill. We - Palestinian civilians -
state that we refuse to live in sixty-four prison camps and demands our
right to freedom of movement, as affirmed in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (Article 13) and other covenants and instruments of
international law.  As faculty and staff of Birzeit University, we also
affirm the right of our students to education free of military harassment
and obstruction and our own right to conduct our teaching, research and
professional life free of the shadow of tanks and armed soldiers.

Israel's propaganda campaign is designed to silence the voice of the
international community - the only international protection for the
Palestinian people that currently exists.  We urge these voices to
continue to protest and to urge their governments to actively intervene to
protect Palestinian civilians and to ensure respect for the Fourth Geneva
Convention and international law.  Carving up the Palestinian territories
into sixty- four prison camps cannot stop a united people's desire for
independence and territorial integrity.  Justice is the open road to
peace; let us keep it open, not close it down.



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