"Student Detained after Refusing to Shake Hand with Israel’s President"
Tuesday Nov 4th, 2008
On the Web at:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/11/04/18548823.php
"On November 2, Hebrew University student Ali Bahar was detained for three hours after refusing to shake hands with Israeli president Shimon Peres. Visiting the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Peres was congratulating students on the opening of the academic year.
"Upon approaching Bahar, the student refused to shake Peres's hand and stated 'I will not shake hands with a murderer of kids.'
Immediately following the encounter, Bahar was detained by university security personal and his student ID was confiscated.
His student ID will not be returned until a disciplinary committee at Hebrew University investigates the incident. Bahar is currently chair of the Arab Student Body of Hebrew university and a member of Abna al-balad, a movement working for the human and legal rights of Palestinians. Abna al-Balad is a democratic organization active inside 1948 Israel, calling for "the return of all Palestinian refugees, and end to the Israeli occupation and the Zionist apartheid, and the establishment of a democratic secular Palestine."
"In calling Peres as a 'murder of kids', Bahar was referring to the Qana Massacre in Lebanon by the Israeli occupation forces. The Qana Massacre took place in 1996 while Israeli forces occupied South Lebanon. The government of Israeli used excessively violent force to subdue resistance to the Israeli occupation and in doing so,
"Israeli occupation forces shelled a UN compound where hundreds of civilians were taking refuge. 104 civilians died and 100 civilians were injured. Human right organizations investigated the massacre and concluded that Israel intentionally attacked the UN compound with deadly shells repeatedly, however Israel denies any real responsibility. Peres, then acting as Israeli Prime Minister, said in a press conference, 'we are sorry, but we do not apologize,' and scapegoats the responsibility to poor intelligence, and resistance forces for using civilians as shields.
"The detention of Bahar is not an isolated incident and sheds light on a common discriminatory practices of detaining and imprisoning Palestinian university students in 1948-Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For years, students organizing in Abna al-Balad have grown accustomed to imprisonment and detention, and the denial of their basic rights as Israeli citizens. Additionally, in the West Bank, the students from the Right to Education campaign, a student run initiative that monitors abuses by the Israeli government, have suffered from administrative detention (imprisonment without charge), the longest detention being two years long. For more information regarding the imprisonment of university student, visit their website: http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/news/catindex31
"In recent years many progressive organizations have called to boycott Israel's academia for being part of a colonial system. The boycott targets the universities compliance and silence in the face of atrocities committed by the apartheid state.
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"Israeli occupation forces shelled a UN compound where hundreds of civilians were taking refuge. 104 civilians died and 100 civilians were injured. Human right organizations investigated the massacre and concluded that Israel intentionally attacked the UN compound with deadly shells repeatedly, however Israel denies any real responsibility. Peres, then acting as Israeli Prime Minister, said in a press conference, 'we are sorry, but we do not apologize,' and scapegoats the responsibility to poor intelligence, and resistance forces for using civilians as shields.
"The detention of Bahar is not an isolated incident and sheds light on a common discriminatory practices of detaining and imprisoning Palestinian university students in 1948-Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For years, students organizing in Abna al-Balad have grown accustomed to imprisonment and detention, and the denial of their basic rights as Israeli citizens. Additionally, in the West Bank, the students from the Right to Education campaign, a student run initiative that monitors abuses by the Israeli government, have suffered from administrative detention (imprisonment without charge), the longest detention being two years long. For more information regarding the imprisonment of university student, visit their website: http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/news/catindex31
"In recent years many progressive organizations have called to boycott Israel's academia for being part of a colonial system. The boycott targets the universities compliance and silence in the face of atrocities committed by the apartheid state.
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