Israeli occupation forces raided on Thursday at dawn Birzeit University in occupied West Bank, ransacked campuses and student union offices.
A statement released by the university said: “A large number of heavily armed Israeli forces stormed Birzeit’s campus at dawn, raiding the headquarters of the student council in Sheikh Rashid bin Said al-Maktoum Building, Kamal Nasir Hall and the Faculty of Science.”
The statement added: “The Israeli occupation forces ransacked the campuses and the different offices they raided and damaged much of the furniture.”
It continued: “The Israeli occupation has waged an extensive campaign against Palestinian universities in the last two years,” noting that in June 2014 and January 2016, the Israeli occupation raided the university and confiscated the contents of student blocs’ offices.
The attack was condemned as a “very dangerous act against academia and Palestinian students”. The university said it “aspires to live by the values of democracy, freedom of speech and respect for human rights.”
Students from Birzeit took part in a large rally two days ago in protest against President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital; a decision that broke with international consensus.
The university denounced the raid as a “flagrant attack” on learning and free speech, adding that it was the “latest in a series of Israeli and American moves that undermine the Palestinian cause, the most prominent of which was the recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.”
It was, the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, “an act, which supports the Israeli occupation’s continued human rights and international law violations toward the Palestinian people and their academic institutions.”
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