Palestinian minister of education Sabri Saidem has said that Israel’s violation of the inviolability of the Birzeit University campus and its kidnapping of its student council head Omar Kiswani is a crime that must not go unnoticed.
In a news conference held in Ramallah Saidam called on all local and international legal and human rights institutions to shoulder their responsibilities to curb such Israeli violations describing what happened as “organized state terrorism and unprecedented insolence.”
“We assert that the International Association of Universities the Association of Arab Universities the parliamentary bodies the human rights organizations and the academic institutions are demanded more than ever to bear their responsibilities and raise their voices towards such violations” the minister said.
Last Wednesday Israeli plain-clothes officers infiltrated into the Birzeit University campus near Ramallah and arrested Omar Kiswani president of its student council.
Online video footage showed six men dressed in civilian clothing pinning Kiswani to the ground kicking and beating him while a few of them fired gunshots on campus.
According to Birzeit University the group attacked Kiswani 24 in front of the student council building.
Another armed Israeli unit had detained the university’s guards in a room and “proceeded to use their firearms against the students while providing cover for the kidnapping operation”.
“They were carrying guns inside their bags they disguised as students and started shooting in broad daylight” Sondos Hamad coordinator of the Right to Education campaign told al-Jazeera Net on the same day.
“They took him to the western gate of the university where Israeli military forces were waiting for him with their jeeps. We don’t know where he is now” he added.
