Solidarity with Bethlehem University Students

international | education | news report Monday November 02, 2009 16:28 by Ciaran O'Carroll

On Wednesday 28th October 2009 Berlanty Azzam, originally from Gaza but studying at Bethlehem University, was arrested at a military checkpoint between Bethlehem and Ramallah. She was then loaded onto an Israeli military jeep - blindfolded and handcuffed - and moved from Bethlehem to Gaza - against her will. When they arrived at the Gaza border around 11:00pm, she was released into the dark and told only, “You are in Gaza.” Berlanty was just two months away from graduating from Bethlehem University with a degree in business studies, now she is imprisoned in one of the world’s most deadly conflict zones.

Solidarity with Bethlehem University Students

On Wednesday 28th October 2009 Berlanty Azzam, originally from Gaza but studying at Bethlehem University, was arrested at a military checkpoint between Bethlehem and Ramallah. She was then loaded onto an Israeli military jeep - blindfolded and handcuffed - and moved from Bethlehem to Gaza - against her will. When they arrived at the Gaza border around 11:00pm, she was released into the dark and told only, “You are in Gaza.” Berlanty was just two months away from graduating from Bethlehem University with a degree in business studies, now she is imprisoned in one of the world’s most deadly conflict zones.
Bethlehem University is a Catholic co-educational institution founded in 1973 in Bethlehem, Occupied Palestine and is open to students of all faith traditions. In October 2008 the President of NUI Maynooth Professor John Hughes visited Bethlehem University to forge links and cooperation the two Universities.
Students studying at the university are faced with many challenges; social issues, class issues and of course the Arab/Israeli conflict. Student politics in Palestine are fiercely fought. In September 2009 student leaders at Bethlehem University called a strike over increasing fees. Students refused to attend classes and the student senate banned professors from teaching. However the real challenge is that they have to face is the Israeli occupation, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Essentially the students and faculty live in a big prison, just a few hundred metres away from the campus is the Israeli ‘separation barrier’. The 26 ft high wall slices Bethlehem in half and many students travelling to campus from Jerusalem are stopped at military checkpoints for hours causing them to miss lectures and exams.
The campus itself shows signs of the conflict. In 2002 during the Israeli army’s siege of the Church of the Nativity the university was hit by Israeli rockets and anti-tank rounds. The stain glass windows in the church were destroyed by automatic weapon fire and a faculty priest was shot at by soldiers occupying the campus.
Education is vital to give Palestinian’s living in Gaza and the West Bank a future. But since May 2009, 12 students from Gaza have been accepted to undergraduate studies at Bethlehem University but none of these students have received permission to travel to Bethlehem from Israel.
Education is a fundamental human right and essential for the exercise of all other human rights. Brother Jack Curran, Bethlehem University Vice President asks you to please send a letter to the Israeli military authorities by email (cogatspokesman@gmail.com) and let them know you demand that they release Berlanty Azzam immediately so she can resume and complete her last year of studies at Bethlehem University.