[Thursday, January 23, 2014] In a Wednesday press release, the Ministry of Higher Education denounced the Israeli army attack against Al-Quds University, for desecrating the sanctity of the institution, obstructing the educational process, and for intentionally horrifying thousands of students and staff members by utilizing all terrorist means, including random heavy firing.Israeli forces raided, on Wednesday, Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem, where clashes erupted between the students and Israeli forces, who fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets inside and outside of the campus. A dozen students and faculty members suffocated due to tear gas inhalation, while others were injured from rubber-coated metal bullets.
The Palestinian News Network (PNN) has reported that the Ministry of Higher Education considers the Israeli army’s latest assault against the university to be part of a continuous and systematic campaign of violations against the Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem and, especially, Al-Quds University, which has been exposed to similar constant attacks.
These violations aim to fight the Palestinian presence in occupied East Jerusalem, and to push Palestinian society towards ignorance and poverty, as well as to kill all elements of development in their society, the Ministry added.
It appealed to all the international institutions, organizations and bodies to immediately intervene, to stand strongly and firmly against such aggression, and to take all the necessary measures to protect the educational process and its institutions from these racist policies — to ensure the right of young Palestinians to safe education.
It also called upon all international academic institutions and universities, their cadres and unions, to denounce racist Israeli occupation policies against Palestinian academic/educational institutions.
