CPTnet
July 21, 2003
HEBRON: Breaking open six months' closure
By Diego Scott

It was a small group of students, but sometimes a small group can achieve
greater results than a big group. With sledge hammers they smashed open the
doors of the Palestinian Polytechnic University (PPU) on July 12,
six-months after the doors had been welded shut by the Israeli army. The
students said it was time to return to class.

On January 12 2003, the Israeli army issued a six-month closure on the PPU
and Hebron University, after several attacks against Israelis had been
carried out by students of the PPU. After the Israeli army welded shut the
entrances to both universities, students had to attend classes in
elementary schools around Hebron. The students complained. The chairs were
too small,
and they felt like children. They didn't have any labs to work in. Why did
everyone at these universities have to suffer for the actions of a few?

At the end of the six months, the Israeli army renewed the closures for
another month. Taking matters into their own hands, students at the PPU
asked CPT to observe as they reopened their university.

The first small group broke open one of the campuses only to face
condemnation by university administrators. The administrators were afraid
the Israeli army might destroy everything inside or blow up the buildings
in retaliation for the students' violation of the closure. They ordered the
janitor to chain the doors shut.

But the army never came. Instead, more students arrived and forced the
doors open again.

The next two days we were asked to go to different PPU campuses to be a
violence-deterring presence as the students opened the doors. These doors
were cut, pried, and smashed open before the press, other international
Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) and hundreds of Palestinians.

If the Israeli army had shown up and tried to arrest the leader, the
soldiers wouldn't have known who to take. There was no leader. The students
who organized the openings did so with collective authority and tight
discipline.

With the doors of PPU and Hebron University reopened, the Israeli army can
come at any time and close the campuses again. If they do, it probably will
only be a matter of time before the students break them open again. What
will the Israeli army do then? Will they destroy everything inside
buildings like the PPU administration fears? Will they blow up the
buildings?

Whatever they do the students will probably not back down. They want to be
back on their campuses where they can learn like adults. They are tired of
sitting in small chairs and tiny tables at elementary schools.