Palestinian Prisoners’ Institutions Condemn the Crime of Storming Birzeit University Campus

January 6, 2025

Ramallah, occupied Palestine — Palestinian prisoners’ institutions strongly condemn the occupation forces’ storming of Birzeit University campus and their assault on the vigil called for by the student movement in solidarity with Palestinian political detainees held in occupation prisons, who are enduring harsh conditions of detention and systematic, escalating violations.

The incursion into the university campus—accompanied by the confiscation of student movement equipment, the firing of live ammunition and tear gas canisters, and the detention of the university’s Vice President for Academic Affairs—constitutes a blatant violation of the sanctity of educational institutions. It represents a direct and compounded attack on a range of fundamental rights, foremost among them freedom of opinion and expression and the freedom of trade-union and student activity, rights guaranteed under the rules of international law, particularly international human rights law.

Prisoners’ institutions affirm that these practices are not isolated incidents, but rather fall within the framework of a systematic colonial policy aimed at silencing the Palestinian voice, criminalizing acts of solidarity, and targeting educational spaces as central arenas of national and intellectual action. This occurs within the context of the comprehensive assault against the Palestinian people, including prisoners who have been facing extremely grave humanitarian conditions inside occupation prisons since the onset of the crime of genocide in Gaza.

Accordingly, prisoners’ institutions call upon the international community, as well as human rights and academic institutions around the world, to assume their legal and moral responsibilities and to take urgent action to condemn these serious violations, exert effective pressure on occupation authorities to halt their ongoing attacks on Palestinian universities, ensure protection for students and staff, and safeguard the right to expression and organization as an inseparable part of the right to freedom and human dignity.