Email: right2edu@birzeit.edu | Phone: 0097(0)2-298-2059
Yesterday, the Student Union of Manchester University passed a motion to twin with An Najah University in Nablus, Occupied Palestine.
The General Meeting was held on Wednesday 7th March 2007 and was attended by over 600 students. The motion, which also acknowledged the detrimental effect of the Israeli occupation on the right to education of Palestinian students, was passed by a majority of over 50 votes.
The motion stated that students in Palestine have had their right to education consistently denied by the Israeli Occupation: checkpoints, attacks on Universities and limitations on movement which seriously hinder the ability of students in Palestine to learn and that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that everyone has the ‘right to education’.
The union will now lobby Manchester University to provide at least 3 scholarships to Palestinian students who wish to study at the university of Manchester as well as to support the Palestinian students in their “Right to Education” campaign and for their basic Human Rights within the territories of mandate Palestine and refugees.
*Text of the motion*
This Union resolves:
1. To send a letter of support and a copy of this motion to Al-Najah University Student Union inviting them to twin with UMSU.
2. To lobby the University to provide at least three scholarships for Palestinian students who wish to study at the University of Manchester.
3. To lobby the University to drop International Fees for all Palestinian students and charge them only home fees.
4. To support the students of Birzeit “right to education campaign” and to campaign for Human Rights for all Palestinians, both within the territory of mandate Palestine and for Palestinian refugees.
5. To raise the above concerns with colleagues in the National Union of Students and encourage NUS to support Palestinian students’ right to education.
6. To publicise our policy of twinning with Al-Najah University Student Union by erecting a plaque, like that which publicises our links with Steve Biko, in the lobby of the Steve Biko building.
Critics of Israeli policy and sympathizers with...