|
SECURITIZATION OF THE
ACADEMY
"When the security apparatus was
established, the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights
(PICCR) wrote to the Ministry of Higher Education to protest. While the
Ministry of Higher Education was successful in stopping the full-fledged
creation of the security apparatus, there is nonetheless a de facto
University Security Administration. It works on an adjunct basis. Some
universities have it and even when people tell you that the security
officers at the gates are hired by the administration that does not mean
they are not also in one of the security services."
– Dr. Ali Jarbawi, General Director,
PICCR13
In May of 1995, the University
Security Administration was established by Presidential Decree. Concerned
with keeping order on campus and protecting students from threats of
violence, sexual-misconduct and outside political intruders, President
Arafat created a national office to prevent discord.14 The Administration
was placed under the control of Colonel Khalil Arafat who was given the
title, General Director. His office is located in the Palestinian General
Security. The Colonel is also a relative of President Arafat.
There is a long-standing procedure
at Palestinian Universities, as well as at many urban universities around
the world, to employ security guards to patrol the university gates.
However, in European and North American universities, these security
officers have no connection to the state; they are university employees
hired to safeguard the students and faculty from theft and violence. On
Palestinian campuses there is little consensus regarding to whom these
guards report as well as what exactly their job entails.
Despite the fact that the University
Security Administration was created in 1995, it was only in 1996 that the
Officials at the Ministry of Education in the West Bank had a concrete
explanation for its creation in the West Bank. Rather than being
established for the sake of conceptual principles of protection, the
University Security on the West Bank was created in response to a concrete
event. Responding to events at al-Najah University in March 1996,
President Yasser Arafat justified the expansion of the University Security
Administration, although officially the office was to have encompassed
both Gaza and the West Bank from the outset. The event at Al-Najah
entailed a policeman entering the campus during student protests. The
students were demonstrating against the arrests of Munther Mushaqi head of
the student council, and others. At that point up to 180-armed men arrived
and beat everyone in sight with batons -- teachers and students alike.
They also shot live bullets and tear gas. Twenty days later, the security
forces entered the university and chased Muhammad Sabha, the student
responsible for the work schedules for the council; he was arrested for
seven months without charge. While the person responsible for commanding
the invasion was punished by the PA, according to the Ministry of Higher
Education, President Arafat recognized the potential tensions between
"town and gown" and therefore inaugurated a new security branch to protect
students and guard the peace on campus. However, President Arafat had
decreed the creation of this force almost a year earlier.
There are pronounced distinctions
between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in terms of the presence of
security on campus. In the West Bank, few people know that such an office
exists; few people, however, would deny that undercover agents are present
on the campuses. In Gaza, students, lecturers, and administrators alike
have no doubt about the existence of the University Security
Administration. Furthermore, the universities in the West Bank have
historically been independent private universities. Despite the fact that
support for Fatah among students and faculty has always been strong, no
West Bank universities maintain direct links to the PLO.
In Gaza, university administrators
did not defy the presidential decree. "If we refused the security guards,
they would think we might be afraid," reported Ahmad al-Sa'ati, the
Director of Public Relations at the Islamic University, to the PHRMG.15 As
an Islamic institution, the University is in greater danger of repression
than other universities and, therefore, possess less freedom to challenge
PA regulations.
Universities on the West Bank were
not willing to concede. University administrations throughout the West
Bank adamantly opposed the establishment of this security service because
they believed freedom on campus to be paramount. Furthermore, they are
geographically separated from the physical center of PA authority. In
response to the introduction of a university security presence, West Bank
administrators threatened to close down rather than to allow government
police on their campuses. They were concerned about the potential for
interference in campus life. Students across the West Bank, including
active Shabibeh (the youth movement of Fatah) members, were also opposed
16. According to one Fatah activist at Bethlehem University, student
letters to influential members of security services were helpful.17
Student councils, across the West Bank were already aware of the presence
of undercover security forces from a variety of security branches. They
were therefore adamant about opposing the creation of a formal presence at
their schools. They therefore turned to the Ministry of Higher Education,
which went to battle on their behalf. Then Minister of Higher Education,
met officially with Ghazi al-Jabali, the Chief of police on the matter.
Her 1997 meeting with al-Jabali was successful and the University Security
Mission was postponed. The question remains, however, as to why the Police
and the PA acquiesced to the university demands.
Administrators at the universities
throughout the West Bank believe that the issue has been solved, and they
are proud of their resolve. They cite the blocking of government
university guards as an example of how little interference exists on West
Bank campuses. For Ibrahim Sa'ada, the Director of Student Affairs at the
Ministry of Higher Education in Ramallah, "it is closed, it is not an
issue now. It [was] 'easily stopped.' " But Colonel Khalil Arafat plans to
expand his office to the West Bank. At this point, he accepts that he only
partially carries out his mission.18
On 25 July 1997, Colonel Khalil
Arafat wrote a letter to the Management of the Police Force describing his
plan to extend the purview of the University Security Administration to
the Universities in the West Bank. On 1 October 1998, a letter was sent to
the new Minister of Higher Education, Munther Salah, soliciting his
cooperation in putting guards on the campuses in the West Bank and Gaza.
The Minister has not yet made any public statement regarding this
subject.19
The issue of the role of security
services on campus is sensitive. There is nothing inherently against human
rights principles for a university student to work for the security or
intelligence services. However, it is problematic for these same students
to be in the active employ of their supervisors while they are attending
classes. The official use of undercover agents on campus is an
infringement on a student's freedom to express one's opinion either in
class or in student pamphlets, and it constitutes a violation of
international norms regarding academic freedom.
There is a fine line, between an
individual who works for Colonel Khalil Arafat or for other security
services university, and who matriculates and attends university, and an
individual who works as an undercover spy. In reality, many
student-security officers are required to monitor daily and/or to report
to their supervisors when someone or something critical of the PA is
encountered. Furthermore, on Khalil Arafat's staff, only 20 of the 85
people who go daily to the universities are students at the universities
in Gaza. According to him, close to one hundred people go from his office
to the universities daily. Thus there are many more people monitoring the
campuses than the students who happen to work for the police. Curiously,
many of the students working in security study law.
Besides monitoring, what do these
people do? The University Security Administration in Gaza, where it is
functioning, is officially responsible for checking students'
identification cards, protecting the building from visitors and preventing
students or visitors from entering the campus with weapons, and preventing
students from wearing security or police uniforms. Nonetheless, when PHRMG
field researchers visited, they were neither stopped nor asked for
identification cards at the gates at either university in Gaza.
Palestinian General Security
General Directorate of the Police
Director of the Police
Date: 17/6/97
Instructions
For the duties and obligations of
the university guard administration
Organizing the movement of students
(males and females) who enter the university according to student cards,
which are administered by the university.
Coordinating with the university
administration, university buildings and campuses should be guarded and
protected, and anyone not holding an official visit card should not be
permitted into the university.
No one carrying weapons is allowed
into the university. Weapons are to be handed to the university guards and
returned to their owner upon departure. The university guards will
maintain a special file regarding this matter.
It is strictly forbidden to release
gunfire at the university campus for any reason unless it is in
self-defense or to prevent a dangerous crime from occurring.
The university guards are supposed
to solve problems calmly and not violently. The guards need to be
completely aware. They need to treat everyone good, especially students
and employees at the university, without discriminating.
University guards need to be alert
and always punctual. Any disturbance at the university needs to be
immediately reported to the director of the university’s general security.
Officers and members of the
university guard should receive technical and administrative instructions
directly from the director of the university administration with respect
to their duties on campus. The university administration should coordinate
fully with the university security administration.
The university guards are forbidden
from participating or taking part in university rallies and hearings, and
they should not interfere in the elections. They should always take
precautions.
Complete coordination and full
cooperation should take place between the university guard and the student
council in order to solve the various problems that might arise on campus.
All militants attending the
university are forbidden from wearing their uniform on campus.
These instructions are to be
followed as of this date. Any one who violates these instructions would be
considered to be violating the law.
Ghazi al-Jabali
Director of the Police.
* Given to the PHRMG by Colonel
Khalil Arafat
Structure of the General
Administration of the University Security Police
Administration of the University
Security Police
*Given to PHRMG by Colonel Khalil
Arafat
The University Security
Administration was created because the guards that are hired privately by
the universities are not considered adequate. According to the Police, the
regular guards are incapable of stopping people who enter the university
because they do not have the training and jurisdiction of the police. The
current guards in Gaza are hired by the administration of the
universities, but they are people who work for or have been trained by the
Palestinian Authority. However, they are not direct employees of the
University Security Administration because their people are monitors.
Nonetheless, many people confirmed that guards hired privately by the
university administrations also work for the PA.
"I don't know if there are other
security guards. We don't allow other security services on campus, but we
can't do anything about it if they have workers on the campus"
- Colonel Khalil Arafat20
The other police and security forces
are not supposed to interfere on the campus. However, many students, from
other forces, who work simultaneously as security and police officers are
on duty when they are at school. Both students who work under cover for
the security branches and full-time civilian students assert that there
are security activities taking place on campuses in the West Bank and
Gaza. The University Security force denies this assertion. They maintain
that other security departments do not have specialized university
offices. As in other areas of the PA, the department in charge of
University Security does not have full jurisdiction. The various security
services extend their control over segments of society and individuals
over which they can.
The Palestinian Authority's
involvement of students and others in university surveillance serves as a
form of political patronage. Students work for the security services
because it is a good job. The money available from the PA is not only used
to pay salaries. It is also instrumental in mobilizing students to cease
their opposition activities. Some students in Gaza even receive money from
the PA even though they are not performing security services. They are
registered and receive money; such contracts are secret. (M.Af.), a law
student who works for Preventative Security Service (PSS) says he can
promise financial support up to 200 shekels a month (50 dollars) to
convince a particularly popular student to join Fatah. He may also offer
protection and other services that someone might need depending on the
budget of the department.21 Since it is easier to say yes than no,
especially in today's dire economic situation, the security service and
Shabibeh's promised resources are a way of persuading people not to oppose
the PA. By contracting young people to work for the authority against
their colleagues, the PA provides employment for an underemployed
population and ,in this way, it ensures support for Fatah.
In addition to President Arafat's
sanctioned University Security Administration there are many undercover
agents working on the University campuses on the West Bank and Gaza. These
individuals keep tabs on campus organizations, threaten people to vote in
elections for Fatah, write reports, and collect the names of students
involved in the Islamic Bloc and in the left wing opposition. They also go
after people who criticize the PA of corruption or expose its human rights
abuses. The vast majority of undercover security agents are male, although
there are some female students who write reports for the security services
also. Without the freedom to speak in class, to participate in campus
activities without fear of reprisal, the development of critical thinking
and free exchange of ideas is severely curtailed.
The PHRMG urges the PA to close down
the University Security Administration or, at the very least, to
restructure the office so that it genuinely protects students. The PA
should not monitor the behavior of university students and faculty members
committed to honest and valuable critique of those governing their
society.
|
