Student political groups face crackdown in West Bank

The student groups affiliated with Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) at Birzeit University organized a series of events to protest the Dec. 8 arrests of a number of their members. Both movements issued statements Dec. 8 describing the arrests as “a continuation of the security coordination policy and a flagrant violation of our people’s rights.” The next morning, each student group signed the “Honor Document,” in which they announced the formation of a committee to follow up on the situation of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

After the formation of the national consensus government in June, the Palestinian security services have maintained a steady campaign to stifle student political movements in the West Bank, including raids and arrests of members of Hamas and its student wing, the Islamic Bloc. The crackdown also targeted the leftist Progressive Student Action Front, the student wing of the PFLP. The student blocs affiliated with Hamas and the PFLP responded in early December with a protest at Al-Quds University. The Progressive Student Action Front posted Nov. 24 on its Facebook page that the security apparatus extended the detention period of its member Ayman Mahareik by 15 additional days before his trial, and that he is charged with incitement via Facebook.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Alaa Rabii, the Islamic Bloc's coordinator at the University of Jerusalem, said four students from his university had been arrested, while more than 15 had been summoned.

The PFLP issued a statement Dec. 9 denouncing the political arrests by the Palestinian Authority (PA), especially those of students. The statement read that the arrests threaten Palestinian national unity as they are not based on any legal justification. Islamic Jihad leader Khader Habib called the security coordination with Israel “a major mistake and a sin committed by the PA against the cause and the Palestinian people.”