Representative of the Islamic Bloc at An-Najah National University Comes under Attack
On Tuesday, June 7, 2022, security officials at the An-Najah National University in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus along with PA security forces and members of Fatah Movement brutally attacked the representative of the Islamic Bloc at the University, Amir Shalhoub. His mobile phone was also seized during the attack.
The attack was carried out when the representative of the Islamic bloc was exercising his legitimate union work and activism, guaranteed by the Student Council constitution to serve the university students.
In a Facebook post, Shalhoub stated that “the incident took place at the assistant academic representative office at the university, where the latter refused to receive a list of students seeking to register in the closed divisions, under the pretext that the student council is the sole authorised party in this case.”
After a short conversation, Shalhoub added, that the assistant agreed to receive the list, and I told him that I’m a representative of the Islamic bloc only and do not recognize the student council. I later received a call from the university security members who asked me if I said that I do not recognize the student council. I answered yes. They later asked me to leave the University without giving any reasons. Security forces later forced me out.
“After I was forced out of the university campus, I contacted the Dean, and during the call, the university security forces pulled the phone and threw it on the ground, before a student affiliated with the Fatah Movement’s student bloc and working as a member at the PA Preventive Security picked the phone and handed it over to the security forces.”
Following the attack, the Islamic Bloc issued a statement holding the university administration fully responsible for the frequent attacks on its members.
The university security officials’ attacks and assaults on students should come to an end, the statement reads.
The bloc called on the Board of Trustees at An-Najah National University, as the university’s supreme authority, to immediately “intervene and put an end to the security officials’ provocative attacks against students in order to preserve the university’s reputation, image, and national history”
Till today, the university administration remained silent and didn’t take any position on the attack.
It is worth mentioning that security officials are not entitled to enter the university campus under any circumstances.
Earlier on Wednesday, a protest was organised by the Islamic Bloc in front of the university in protest against the recent attack on its representative
PA security forces prevented the media from covering the protest. One journalist posted a live video on Facebook showing his camera, which he said was broken by PA security as he attempted to cover the incident.