West Bank: Learning Denied

By Leslie C. Schmida

Some 800 seniors who were expecting to graduate this month from Al Najah University—the largest of Palestinian universities on the Israeli-occupied West Bank—must now wait a full year longer to get their diplomas as a result of Israel's decision to close the school for four months. The decision, announced in July following a raid on a campus exhibit which the Israelis claimed was "hostile" and "nationalistic," apparently will stand despite complaints by U.S. educators and jurists that such collective punishment is banned by international law.

A group of concerned Americans has visited the U.S. Department of State twice in the past month to discuss the Al Najah closure, and to suggest that it is part of a systematic Israeli attempt to stifle Palestinian education, particularly at the university level.

Orin Parker, president of AMIDEAST and spokesman for the group—which included educators, lawyers, former U.S. Congressman Paul Findley, former UNRWA Commissioner General John H. Davis, and former U.S. Ambassador Andrew I. Killgore—noted at an August 23 meeting with Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy that the U.S. government in recent years has spent more than $10 million on West Bank education—with the lion's share going to the very universities which the Israeli authorities now seem most determined to disrupt. Members of the group expressed the hope that the closure order would be modified to permit the university to reopen by October 1, and agreed to a State Department request for time to practice "quiet diplomacy" with Israeli authorities. In a second meeting September 12 at the Department of State the group was informed that the concern expressed by American educators had been relayed to Israeli authorities through the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, but that the closure order had not been modified.

Ironically, everything displayed at the "hostile" Al Najah exhibit raided by Israeli authorities could have been purchased in Israel or had already been cleared by Israeli censors. However, schools like Al Najah have had to contend with far more than periodic closings. (For a rundown on university closures, see box on this page.) The situation has steadily deteriorated since 1980, when the Israelis issued Military Order 854, putting the West Bank educational system under the authority of the Israeli military administration. The order required universities to obtain yearly operating licenses, and also required both faculty members and students to obtain permits in order to attend classes. Although Military Order 854 was condemned by UNESCO, a faculty committee from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and international legal groups as a violation of Article 61 of the Geneva Convention, such protests have had no discernable effect.

Methods of Harassment

Individual students also have been harassed in a manner which arouses suspicion that the goal is to force Palestinians seeking higher education to leave the West Bank altogether. The tawjihi is a Jordanian government examination which is given upon completion of secondary school studies in West Bank institutions (which continue to follow Jordanian educational procedures). It is administered in two parts—one in January/ February and the other in June. A student must pass both in order to receive a certificate of admission into West Bank universities. In June, 1983, some 34 tawjihi candidates were arrested in their homes. They were not charged with an offense nor were they questioned, but their detention prevented them from completing the examinations and, therefore, postponed their studies for an entire year. The pattern was repeated in the fall of 1983 when similar arrests took place as students were preparing for the winter exams.

Another rule imposed by order 854 is the "loyalty oath" which "foreign" faculty—by definition those who were physically absent from the West Bank at the time Israel took control of it, even if they had been lifetime residents—have been required to sign. Because of this, Al Najah lost two thirds of its "foreign" faculty in 1982, including those advocating a dialogue with Israel. In 1983, Birzeit University nearly suffered the same fate, when professors there refused to sign a purely political statement.

All textbooks must be approved by Israeli authorities, and as many as 3,000 are now banned.

For the most part, they consist of works on Arab and Islamic history, culture, and politics, but among their number are books on the history of Zionism, as well as many Western classics. Even the most innocuous of texts—including those for the natural sciences—must pass through a maze of bureaucratic procedures before finding their way to a classroom, especially if they originate in an Arab country.

West Bank Palestinians have little choice but to endure these conditions, since study abroad is expensive and since Israel can terminate residence cards after 12 months abroad—thus jeopardizing the student's right to return home. And because up to 15 percent of Palestinian students have been arrested (though not necessarily charged) at one time or another, they often encounter difficulty in securing exit visas.

As Israel has increasingly tightened its grip on Palestinian education, the only official protest from the U. S. has been a denunciation of the loyalty oath requirement by Secretary of State George Shultz, himself a former university faculty member. Most of the U. S. academic community—which has been quick to protest abrogation of academic freedom elsewhere in the world—also has remained silent.

Leslie Schmida, currently in charge of publications and research at AMIDEAST, has written considerably on education throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

SIDEBAR

West Bank School Closings

There are four university-level institutions on the West Bank. All have been closed by Israeli authorities at least once in the past two years.

Bethlehem University, founded in 1973 with strong Catholic support, has 1,360 students and 99 lecturers.

Birzeit University was founded in 1924 as a private elementary school and inaugurated B.A. and B.S. programs in 1975.

Hebron-Islamic College, the newest West Bank university with 1,789 students and 35 lecturers, was subjected to an attack on July 26, 1983, in which three students were killed and 28 wounded by Israeli terrorists who invaded the campus and sprayed it with machine gun bullets.

Al Najah National University, established in 1918 and elevated to university status in 1977, has 3,540 students and an academic and administrative staff of 350.