Birzeit Report, April 2000  Arrest, Closure and Security Measures…

The current language of the PNA

On a hill to the north of Jerusalem lies Birzeit University, which is considered the oldest among all Palestinian universities, as it was established in 1972. It expanded and developed following a western (American-European) style in everything; syllabi, books and grading system. Moreover, most of its lecturers received their education either in Europe or in the USA.

During the Palestinian uprising or intifada, Birzeit University was considered a center for national struggle against the occupation. Its teachers and students played the game of cat and mouse with Israeli soldiers. The Israeli authorities closed the University for four years, during which alternative teaching took place in various houses and rooms in and around the Ramallah district. After the intifada cooled down, the University was reopened in 1992.

With the coming of the Palestinian Authority in 1993, Birzeit University entered a new era of peace, calm and tranquility, which caused many teachers and students to consider it as an ideal refuge for expressing opinions and academic freedom. This model picture was shattered on 26.2.2000 when the French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin paid a visit to the University. He described the freedom fighters of Hezbullah in south Lebanon as terrorists, which upset Birzeit students, who then threw stones at Mr. Jospin as he left the hall at the campus.

It was decided that the Prime Minister of France would visit Israel, then meet with some Palestinian figures in East Jerusalem, then visit Birzeit University, the Law Institute in particular, which is sponsored by France, in coordination with the administration of the University. *The French Consulate in Jerusalem told the PHRMG on 27.2.00

The main objective of Mr. Jospin’s visit was to emphasize the important role of his country in the political arena of the region, in an attempt to solve extant disputes on the Syrian and Palestinian tracks with the Israeli government. * Al-Quds daily newspaper on 27.2.00

His talks in the area concentrated on three different topics:

Recommencement of negotiations with the Syrians, improving security conditions in south Lebanon, and pushing forward with negotiations on the Palestinian track.

In a joint press conference with the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Jospin condemned the attacks carried out by the Lebanese Hezbullah against the Israelis, and he said “France condemns the attacks of Hezbullah, and in any case, all attacks that are aimed at Israeli soldiers or civilians.”

It was decided that Mr. Jospin would visit Birzeit University on Saturday 26.2.00, but following the shock that his declarations caused and the very late information received by the Workers’ Association at the University (they only knew of the visit late Thursday), it was difficult to take all appropriate measures regarding his visit.

Despite the anger caused by Mr. Jospin’s remarks, the administration of the University insisted on receiving the French official on Saturday, ignoring the positions of both the students and the Workers’ Association, who clearly stated that “Mr. Jospin was persona non grata”. The University acceded to the wishes of President Yasser Arafat and also followed its own interests. The French government participates in financing the University and it also fully sponsored the Law Institute where the French guest was received.

During the evening prior to Mr. Jospin’s visit, dialogue and discussions among the concerned parties took place in order to decide on the most appropriate response that would take into consideration the positions of all the parties, and they all agreed on an intermediary solution. It was decided to hold speeches during the meeting with Mr. Jospin; in particular a speech in French by the Workers’ Association expressing their complete rebuttal of his remarks and demanding an explanation from him (this speech was not on the original agenda of events for the reception). Their speech read:

This solution eased the opposition against the visit; the students only shouted and carried slogans as Mr. Jospin came in, and all the students’ political blocs boycotted the meeting with him in the hall of the Law Institute. Other ordinary students were left to decide for themselves.

The Workers’ Association threatened to boycott the meeting if Mr. Jospin did not apologize for the remarks he made earlier in Tel Aviv. Accordingly, the meeting took place in the hall of the Law Institute, while students were waiting outside not knowing what was going on inside.

However, the news came out that Mr. Jospin did not explain his position regarding his remarks but insisted on what he had previously stated.

After Mr. Jospin left the hall, according to some students, he did not address the position of the Workers’ Association as explained by Mohammed Abu-Zeid, Chairman of the Association, who said: “We decided to boycott your visit because we consider you an unwanted guest, since you have smashed the respected principles of the French Revolution, international law, and human rights, that provide for the right of people to fight against their occupiers. You have sacrificed those principles to your own personal interests, that are related to reaching the Republican Palace in France.” Mr. Jospin continued on his way, but one of the students threw a stone at him, which stirred the fire of anger within the other students, who began throwing stones at Mr. Jospin.

The students considered the decision of the administration of the University to allow the presence of Palestinian security forces on campus to provide protection for the guest a serious precedent that gave these forces the green light to violate the sanctity of the University. The Palestinian Intelligence Service and Preventive Security Service carried out a massive campaign of arrest among the University students. Although the event itself was over within hours, security forces continued to arrest students for a period of 3 to 10 days, without providing any charges against them. Their breaking into the campus of Birzeit University, considered the leading Palestinian university and referred to as the Palestinian Harvard, and arresting people, caused even greater anger among the rest of the students.

… then came the successive measures taken by the PA. President Arafat apologized, more than once, to the President of France, in an attempt to rescue his shaky relationships with the donor countries. In the end he received 200 million francs. Then, on same day, Saturday, Col. Jibreel al-Rujoub, Head of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service in the West Bank, arrived at the University and handed the President of the University, Dr. Hanna Nasser, a letter from President Arafat ordering the closure of the University for three days. He also summoned Dr. Nasser to Gaza to apologize to the guest.

After this wave of apologies, a wave of arrests began that stretched to reach all the students who took part in the march. Forces also spread out to the surrounding roads and mountains, even in the streets and coffee shops of Ramallah, searching for students of Birzeit University. They even arrested students who were not present on the campus when the event occurred. The security forces arrested about 20 supporters of the PFLP who held a demonstration in Ramallah the following day, Sunday. It was understood that the detained students would be presented to the State Security Court on a charge of “attempt to kill,” and to prevent them from studying in any Palestinian university or college. * al-Sabbar newspaper, On 08.03.00

The students’ movement at Birzeit University met the security measures taken by the PA with escalatory steps. Birzeit University went through some very hard days and witnessed intensive meetings in order to reach a satisfactory solution to the crisis; a solution that would maintain the sacrosanct academic nature of the University.

The deputy chairman of the Students’ Council came out of one of those meetings with the administration to announce in front of a student gathering that both sides (students and administration) agreed that the first step was to work for the release of the detained students.

In the first and the biggest opposing step since the coming of the PA in 1994, hundreds of students and teachers held a sit-in and cancelled classes in all of the departments of the University on Tuesday 29.2.00. Some 200 students participated in a hunger strike (al-Quds newspaper 5.3.00) in addition to activities held by students in other Palestinian universities to show solidarity in which statements were published demanding the immediate release of detained students and the maintenance of freedom of expression.

The security forces escalated their measures; they set up a checkpoint at the entrance to the University and then began to break into students’ homes. Teachers at the University estimated the number of students arrested to be around one hundred.

A student of journalism, R.M., said: “If this matter doesn’t succeed (the strike) we will resort to other means.”

The students played nationalistic songs on the loudspeakers; those songs were heard formerly during clashes with Israeli soldiers.

Some students said that the suppression that the security forces practiced in dealing with events at Birzeit reminded people of what they hear about torture inside the prisons of the PA. The response of the security forces also widened the gap between the Authority and its people.

The students also criticized the administration of the University for closing, and they described this decision as a collective punishment measure against thousands of students. They demanded that the administration carry out its responsibilities to restore order without allowing security forces to enter the campus. They called for the immediate reopening of the doors of the University.

One of the staff members at Birzeit University said: “the administration of the University has two choices; to restore discipline by dealing with the students who participated in the event according to the rules of the University, or leave the matter to the Authority, which means allowing the security forces to enter the campus, arrest students and punish them according to the rules of the Authority. But I think that it is better and wiser to punish the students according to University rules, rather than to leave them to the State Security Court.”

The head of public relations at the University, Dr. Albert Aghazerian said: “If the university doesn’t take measures, the Authority will, which means having political arrests. We at the University do not have any problem with political freedom of expression.”

Some workers at the University referred to the reason for the events, that is the visit of Mr. Jospin, whose remarks on the Lebanese resistance provoked Palestinians. But Mr. Aghazerian added: “Mr. Jospin was a guest of the PA, and if this is the way to treat visitors of the PA, then that is something different.”

Other officials at the University pointed out that more than half of the budget of the University comes from the PA, and therefore the administration of the University had to take measures against the convicted students.

Aghazerian suggested : “Of course, they (the students) could be punished administratively; they could be prevented (from their studies) for one or two semesters, and this could become an educational message that violence should not find its way onto the University campus.”

Mr. al-Tayeb Abdel-Rahim, General Secretary of President Arafat, said to Agence France Presse: “President Arafat phoned Mr. Jospin immediately after the incident and expressed his opposition and condemnation to it.”

He opined that: “Those students who threw stones at Mr. Jospin belong to the Islamic bloc and they get their orders from outside in order to harm the image of the Palestinian people.”

Col. Mohammed Dahlan, the head of the Preventive Security Service in the Gaza Strip told Agence France Presse that: “President Arafat ordered all of the security services to take rapid measures and to arrest anyone who was involved in what happened.” President Arafat accompanied Mr. Jospin to the airport upon his departure, something that he rarely does even with senior guests.

Mr. Marwan Barghouthi, Secretary of the Higher Committee of the Fateh movement in the West Bank described the event by saying: “The attack against Mr. Jospin is a “cowardly act” that aims at harming the cordial relationship between Palestine and France.”

The Palestinian security forces broke into the campus of Birzeit University and arrested numerous students without arrest warrants. Those arrests seemed to be unplanned, but in fact they were well organized in content, so that the detention and interrogation phases took a different turn. The interrogation of those students revealed that the arrests were conducted on a political basis, or to resolve personal disputes. Some students were arrested from their homes, and others from the streets away from the University; others weren’t even students but employees of the University (3 of them) who were arrested from the computer unit, and who tried very hard to explain that they were not students, but to no avail. One student was even arrested from the University under the threat of weapons.

The Vice Chairman of the University for administrative and financial affairs Dr. Carmilla Armanos protested against the arrest of some of the University employees, but members of the security

Some members of the security forces in civilian clothes attacked a student (F.A) after they waited for him among a stand of olive trees as he was returning home. They took him to the police station where they put him in a cell and beat him very badly. Then they took him to Jericho where they interrogated him for a whole night, but he insisted that he didn’t throw any stones, so they released him the following day.

Some of the students were tortured very severely; their heads were covered with dirty bags, and they were forced to sit in unusual and painful positions known as“Shabeh.” They threatened to rape one of the students, M.A, and called his mother and sister foul names.

A University employee (M.S.) was arrested from inside the administration building, and the head of the University promised that he would be released, but he remained in prison for 10 days.

(On Sunday at about 15:50, a vehicle belonging to the General Intelligence Service stopped near Rukab, the main street in Ramallah, and a few men grabbed me and pushed me inside the vehicle. They accused me of insulting the Authority, because earlier I had participated in a demonstration in support of the detained students.

They began calling me and my family, mother and sister, foul names, and beat me very savagely. They took me to the General Intelligence building in Ramallah, where seven men gathered around me and beat me all over my body.

One of them, probably an officer, said that he would violate me, and started undoing his buttons and made me take off my jacket. I began to shout and called his mother and sister bad names. But at once, all the seven men attacked me again, beating me all over, and I recognized one of them, M.Z., thin and tall with a beard, and he was the worst of them.

After that they put me in another room with other detainees, we were ten, in very offensive conditions. Then they took us to Jericho, where things were better. The director of the prison in Jericho treated us well on the first day.)

(Three men from the General Intelligence Service came to my house and arrested me in the street on the way home. When they captured me they said on the inter-com “we have reached the objective.” They took me to Ramallah District Headquarters or Muqata’a, where they made me stand on a plastic chair, then a huge man came and stood in front of me; he was taller than me on the chair. They intended to frighten me.

They asked me about the demonstration and who was in it and I said I didn’t know, so they got upset and began beating me all over my body. They hit me with a mobile telephone in my face. One of them said that my file was extensive and that they had waited long enough for me. They beat me from midnight till 5 a.m. and put me in a small dirty room with no blanket or cover. The following day someone came in and claimed he was the owner of the mobile telephone and asked me for the cost of it because it was damaged. They prevented my lawyer or family from visiting me, saying that I was a special case. An officer from General Intelligence said that he had heard a lot about me and accused me of contacting elements outside the country, and that the attorney general would transfer me to the State Security Court soon. But on Saturday they put me with the other students, and we were all released on Sunday.

(On Saturday 26.02.2000 at about 16:30 in the afternoon, I was leaving the University in a taxi when I saw that many Preventive Security men were gathered at the entrance to the University. They stopped the car and one of them said to me: “Get out, Sheikh” and they took me and my colleague A.A. to the offices of Preventive Security in Ramallah and put us in a dark room. They had detained students come in and out of that room, then they gathered all the students in one small room; we were ten students in that room, which only contained a desk, table and one chair. They called each student in alone for questioning and interrogation. We had food brought to us from people outside, but not from the Preventive Security Service.

After that, they transferred us to Jericho, all nine of us, because they had released one of the students the night before at 23:00 hours.

As soon as we arrived in Jericho they made us stand hands up facing the wall and this continued for a long time. One of the guards came and asked us if we were happy and I said: “God won’t let the Jews be happy,” and he got very upset and took me to the toilet where he made me sit on the commode handcuffed and blindfolded. This was unbearable because the smell was disgusting and there was no space. He would let me out into the corridor to allow people in to relieve themselves. This guard, M., beat me in my face in that toilet. He hurt me very much and said: “Whenever I speak, you shut your mouth.” My ears hurt until now from that beating. Another time a guard came into the toilet and when he saw me he said “You’re very tall like a palm tree, but your mind is very little,” and I replied: “When you come to Birzeit you will see whose mind is very little.” He got very upset, and called one of the interrogators, B., who forced me to apologize to the guard who insulted me. This interrogator took the blindfold from my eyes. But after he left, the guard, R., came back and blindfolded my eyes very tightly, and I shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God All-Mighty), so that the interrogation officer came in and loosened the cuffs on my hands, and the blindfold on my eyes. They left me in that toilet the whole night until the following morning. On Sunday 27.02.00 they unlocked the handcuffs, and removed the blindfold, and put me in a larger room with one big window but no furniture. After that they took me to be interrogated, and an officer, B., asked me to write about my role in the Jospin incident, so I did. I didn’t throw any stones, and I thought they knew that because Col. Jibreel al-Rujoub told us earlier when we were in Ramallah that the Preventive Security Service had four videos of the events collected from news agencies, and threatened that “Any one who participated in the stone throwing will spend the rest of his life in prison.”

After the interrogation they took me back to the cell, where I stayed from Sunday morning 27.02 to Tuesday morning 29.02.00, with my hands cuffed behind my back, sleeping on the floor with no blanket. During those three days they interrogated me, asking about my membership in Islamic Jihad. I denied that and said that I limit my activities to the Palestinian Youth Islamic Union which is licensed by the Ministry of Youth and Sport. I went on a hunger strike from Sunday morning. I only had some water and salt. On Tuesday morning I noticed that the interrogators were different, and they undid the handcuffs and removed the blindfold. Then an officer arrived with two representatives from the Red Cross, one of who noticed there was nothing to sleep on in my room and complained, but they didn’t listen to her. After they left, one of the interrogators came back and said to me: “You are Kh. A., and you will confess sooner or later, either from your mouth or from your bottom.” He went out and I heard him saying to another interrogator, S., “He won’t take more than 5 minutes.”

Then the interrogator, S., came in, tied my hands to the window of the room, and beat me very savagely on my head and face. He told me that he would come back if I called him, and left me there for more than two hours. He made me spread my legs, and counted the floor tiles between them, and said I must not reduce the distance and if I did he would punish me. But I could not stand the situation so I sat down. He came back after that and kept threatening me.

On Tuesday, very late at night they took me to the interrogator, F., who once more accused me of an affiliation with Islamic Jihad. But I denied the charges, so they beat me again and left me tied and blindfolded in the difficult and painful“Shabeh” position for some time. They returned to me, but I told them that I had nothing to say, so they untied me, and left me to sleep on a chair.

I heard that some representatives from human rights organizations came to the prison, but they didn’t let them see me.

On Saturday afternoon they took me to another room, and on Sunday, the last day, many delegations came to see us.

Finally, they took us to Ramallah on Sunday late in the evening and released all of us, but I knew that they were going to present four students to the judiciary; I know two of them: Osayd Shanti and Tareq Arar.

Two days after the arrest of the students, and following some escalatory measures taken by the students’ movement at the University, The Students’ and the Workers’ Associations received the news that President Arafat wanted to meet with their representatives. (The news came via a phone call from the President’s office to the office of Dr. Mohammed Abu-Zeid, head of the Workers’ Association)

A discussion took place regarding the visit to the President. Then it was decided to make the visit, and to have two short speeches; one by the Workers’ Association and one by a student representing the Students’

Movement. All the political blocs of the students agreed to participate in the delegation except the “Wa’y” [Enlightenment], a religious party.

The meeting with the President went as follows, according to students who were present:

The meeting started at about 1 a.m. (after midnight) and the President was busy signing some papers in the presence of Haj Ismail, Head of the National Security forces, Mr. Marwan Barghouthi, a member of the Legislative Council, and Dr. Naim Abu al-Hummos, Deputy Minister of Education. The President asked one of the delegation to speak about the subject, but Dr. Abu-Zeid, was still downstairs talking to some officials in the office, so the President got upset, and as one of the people started to say “Mr. President…”, Dr. Abu-Zeid came in, and said: “The incident that occurred was a passing one and unintended.” But the President immediately replied: “A passing incident, and you pelt our guest with stones, in a manner that contradicts the traditions of Islam and our Palestinian traditions.” Then another person said: “The students of Birzeit university are the (Generals of Stones) as you have called them during the Intifada [uprising], Mr. President, and they sacrificed for their homeland and struggled for freedom; they are the same ones who did this. We hope that you will order their release so that normal life can be resumed at the University.”

Then the Vice Chairman of the Students’ Council said: “Birzeit University, as you know Mr. President, has always been the university of freedom-fighters, so we hope that the PA will cooperate with us to close this file.”

President Arafat seemed to be satisfied with what he heard and promised to act regarding the detained students. He said: “What has occurred negatively affects the Palestinian-French relationship, and this is serious, because after the collapse of the Soviet Union, our only supporter now is the European Union. We will announce our independent state soon and we have to build it together because it will be your state,” and so the meeting with the President ended on a positive note, and everyone shook hands with President Arafat.

Haj Ismail, Mr. Marwan Barghouthi and Dr. Abu al-Hummos asked to have a meeting with the delegation. Haj Ismail claimed that the events at the University were planned before hand, but one person contradicted that and said things happened spontaneously as a result of the remarks of Mr. Jospin. Another person said that many students and employees at the University protected the car of Mr. Jospin, and asked that until the detained students were released they must not be tortured. Haj Ismail said that the students were not being tortured, so the delegation asked to visit them, but Haj Ismail said he needed two days to arrange that.

On 5.3.00, following instructions from President Arafat, and a verbal request from President Chirac passed on by the French Consul to relax measures taken against Birzeit students, and because of internal and external pressure in the same direction, all of the detained students were released.

Col. Jibreel al-Rujoub, head of the Preventive Security Service in the West Bank, said that the students were released because the results of the investigation indicated that what happened was not planned and there was no indication of any conspiracy, but that four students would be brought before justice, and they are: Israr Yacoub, Tareq Arar, Rami Fadayel and Osayd Shanti.

The release of the students took place on Sunday at about 11 p.m. from the district building “Muqata’a” in Ramallah, where many of their colleagues waited for them outside. A big celebration took place the following day, Monday 6.3.00, during which Dr. Mohammed Abu-Zeid, Head of the Workers’ Association, said: “We have taught you in the day time, but you have taught us in the night hours.” One of the students, A.S., spoke on behalf of the detained students about the conditions inside the prison.

It is illogical and absolutely wrong to gain the friendship of others at the expense of our people and against the rule of law and human rights. (Dr. Ghazi Hamad, al-Risala newspaper)