7 January 2026

They’re at it again. Ever since the 1950s, when Palestinians recognised the importance of education for the survival of their society, Israeli authorities have sought to obstruct the development of Palestinian colleges and universities. The Palestinians have pressed ahead, becoming the best-educated nation in the whole of the Arab world, with nearly 100 percent literacy and the education of large numbers of medical doctors, graduate engineers and other professionals. But the Israelis persist in their brutal repression. They shut down Birzeit for long periods of time during the first and second intifadas. More recently IDF squads have repeatedly thrown the University into chaos in their attempts to arrest student activists. And just two days ago they launched a full-scale invasion of the University, damaging property, injuring numerous students and disrupting university life. Here’s a statement from the Birzeit University authorities explaining what happened.

Statement from Birzeit University on the Israeli military invasion of its campus and shooting of students

6 Jan 2026

As part of its ongoing assault on Palestinian life and institutions, the Israeli occupying army carried out a military invasion of Birzeit University during official working hours, at a time when the campus was filled with students, faculty members, and staff. The invasion was premeditated and coincided with a student union protest against the settler-colonial army’s violence against our people and its policy of mass political imprisonment.

Turning the university campus into a site of military aggression, the occupying forces destroyed the University’s main gate, stormed the campus with a large number of soldiers and military vehicles, and fired live ammunition, stun grenades, and tear gas directly at students and members of the university community. As a result, several students sustained gunshot injuries and remain hospitalized.

This daytime military invasion of Birzeit University constitutes part of a systematic policy pursued by the Zionist settler-colonial regime to intimidate students and undermine their right to education, with the aim of suppressing Palestinian consciousness and targeting national institutions. The University affirms that these repressive practices will not break the will of its students or staff, nor will they deter it from continuing its academic and national mission.

In flagrant violation of international norms and conventions that guarantee the protection of students and workers in academic institutions, including the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law, the Zionist state continues to criminalize Palestinian education. Birzeit University reiterates its call on international organizations, human rights institutions, and media outlets to assume their moral and legal responsibilities by taking immediate action to expose these ongoing violations against Palestinian higher education, to exert effective pressure to halt them, and to hold those responsible accountable.

Birzeit University affirms that education will remain an act of anti-colonial resistance, and that the University will continue to be a space for knowledge and freedom, despite all attempts at repression and aggression.

Birzeit University

January 6, 2026