[News] Palestinian Authority forces assault students protesting controversial university dismissals

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/west-bank-palestinian-forces-assault-students-protesting-controversial-university-dismissals>
West Bank: Palestinian forces assault students protesting controversial
university dismissals
By Shatha Hammad in Nablus, occupied Palestine
June 14, 2022
------------------------------

Security forces at An-Najah National University in Nablus could seen
beating students and spraying them with pepper gas, footage shared on
social media showed

Security forces violently disperse a student rally at An-Najah University,
on 14 June 2022 (Screengrab)

Published date: 14 June 2022 20:17 UTC | Last update: 22 hours 17 mins ago

Dozens of security guards violently dispersed a student rally at a West
Bank university on Tuesday, leaving protesters and staff wounded, footage
shared on social media purported to show.

Security forces at An-Najah National University in Nablus could be seen beating
students <https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1536753572481839106>, spraying
them with pepper spray and forcing them out of the campus during
the protest which was in response to the university's decision to expel a
group of students last week.

Plain-clothed security officers could be seen chasing students
<https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1536724940354887680>in the vicinity of
the university and gunshots could be heard in the background. No gunshot
wounds were reported late on Tuesday.

A source told Middle East Eye that the crackdown on the protest was
supported by the Palestinian Authority Security Services (PSS).

Last Wednesday, undercover Palestinian Authority (PA) security officers and
members of the student arm of the ruling party Fatah, known as the
"Shabiba", reportedly assaulted students and journalists
<https://www.arab48.com/%D9%81%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B7%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA/%D8%A3%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1/2022/06/08/%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%84%D8%B3-%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%AA%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%A1%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%B7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D9%88%D8%B5%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%81%D9%8A%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A3%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%AC%D8%A7%D8%AD>
at a protest organised by the Islamic bloc, another student group
affiliated with the Hamas movement.

The university dismissed 10 students in connection to the brawls that
followed. Five of those dismissed were members of the Islamic bloc and five
from its rival the Shabiba. The decision was denounced by both rival
student bodies.

A student member of the Independent Movement - a student group that
organised the protest - told MEE that the decision to hold the
demonstration came after a meeting with the university's administration
ended at an impasse.

The student said the crackdown began early on Tuesday when security guards
prevented students from reaching a meeting point inside the university,
leaving some trapped inside and a large number outside the university's
main gate.

When the students who were inside decided to go to the main gate and demand
entry for the other students, security forces began beating the protesters
and forced many outside.

One student member from the Independent Movement said around 40 female
students gathered inside the university yard and refused to leave until a
professor intervened and granted them safe passage.

<https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/palestine-birzeit-university-election-turning-point>

Palestine: Do Birzeit University election results mark a turning point?

However, eyewitnesses told MEE that security guards and members of the
Shabiba pursued some of the female students with weapons and threatened to
hurt them.

Professors Nasser al-Din al-Shaer and Amer Joud Allah were reportedly
attacked while trying to stop the attack and were taken to hospital.

The An-Najah University said in a statement that violence started after
"external groups and some of the expelled students tried to storm the gates
of the university". It added that a number of students and security guards
were injured.

The university also announced the transition to remote learning in the next
two days.

The Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights said it held
the university administration "fully responsible" for the behaviour of the
security guards.

Hamas, which has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007 after winning
legislative elections one year earlier, called the "suppression" of
peaceful protests a "barbaric and criminal attack by the security thuggery
for which the university administration bears responsibility".

Hamas and Fatah split violently in 2007, leaving the Islamist movement in
control of Gaza and effectively splitting the Palestinian territory in two.

An-Najah University has witnessed an escalation of the crackdown on Hamas
affiliates by pro-PA forces since the 2007 infighting.

In the same year, Islamic bloc member Muhammad Raddad, 20, was killed
<https://www.alhaq.org/ar/advocacy/2648.html>on campus when PA security
officers and university guards fired live ammunition at students following
a heated student meeting.
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