Students Reopen Hebron University Gates

Students Reopen Hebron University Gates

By Kathy Kamphoefner

Christian Peacemaker Team- Hebron

[Hebron]-Hebron University students reopened the university gates at 11:00 am today. The Israeli army had welded the two main gates shut when they closed the university for a six-month period to end July 11.

"It's a great day that the students opened the gate to the university," said a university spokesperson. During the university's closure, students have been studying in smaller groups, in various locations, including homes and in elementary schools in the afternoons. "The lack of library access has been the most important thing they have lacked," the spokesperson reported. Hebron University hopes to resume normal operation for summer school.

A rumor was an apparent motivation for today's action: students had heard that the Israeli army was going to impose an additional six months of closure, according to one university professor. He said they were fed up with the closure, and the Road Map meetings in Aqaba motivated the timing of their nonviolent action. "This is a peaceful movement, and the students just want to practice their basic human right for education," he said.

CPTers Kathy Kamphoefner, Paul Pierce and Kathie Uhler visited the university and joined in today's celebration of the open gates. As one of its first actions in Hebron in June 1995, CPT-Hebron had opened the university gates.

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