University students targeted for arrest in northern West Bank

(Jenin) Ali Samoudi

Tuesday, 21 November 2006


“My son was arrested without reason and has lost his academic future,” Salah Tawfiq Zaid said of his son. Israeli forces detained the western Jenin village university student on 14 November.

He explained on Tuesday that Israeli forces have recently stepped up the campaign against students in the northern West Bank, subjecting them to detention, beatings, and interrogation. Sources in the Palestinian Prisoner Society reported today that Israeli forces arrested 20 university students in November.

They were taken to the Israeli military installation in the northern West Bank's Salem without disclosing a reason for the arrests.

Nineteen year old Zaid was arrested at the Zatara Checkpoint without cause, reports his father. In the presence of eyewitnesses Israeli forces took the Ramallah Teacher's College student. “He was in a car, which the soldiers stopped. They inspected it, checked identities, and then detained my son. They searched and questioned him, and then took him to a nearby military camp,” Zaid's father told PNN.

“We learned from the Palestinian Prisoner Society lawyer that Zaid was transferred to the Salem detention center in western Jenin where he is currently languishing. The Israeli police and investigators told the lawyer that Zaid will be held without charge.”

Zaid's story is representative of those of northern West Bank students in the past weeks. His father continued, “The occupation forces will not release him despite the fact that his arrest was based on nothing other than wrong place at the wrong time. There are no charges and he does not belong to any political party. His academic future is at risk.”

Nablus' An Najah University student Mahmoud Rushdie was arrested at a flying checkpoint on the road between the northern West Bank cities of Nablus and Jenin. He was not charged with anything but still the Israeli forces refuse to release him. Instead he joins the hundreds of Palestinian political prisoners being held without charge or trial in Israeli prisons.

The Palestinian Prisoner Society is calling for international intervention as more students fear the trip to universities.

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