WEST BANK: ISRAELI SOLDIERS CONFRONT PALESTINIAN STUDENTS WANTING TO RETURN TO UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES IN HEBRON AFTER ISRAELI CLOSURES

Record ID: 399823

  • Title: WEST BANK: ISRAELI SOLDIERS CONFRONT PALESTINIAN STUDENTS WANTING TO RETURN TO UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES IN HEBRON AFTER ISRAELI CLOSURES
  • Date: 10th December 1996
  • Summary: HEBRON, WEST BANK (DECEMBER 10, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) (OUTSIDE THE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY) 1. GV PALESTINIAN STUDENTS GATHERING OUTSIDE THE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF HEBRON 0.04 2. SV ISRAELI SOLDIERS SPEAKING TO PALESTINIANS 0.06 3. SLV SOLDIER DETAINING A PALESTINIAN STUDENT 0.12 4. SLV SOLDIERS ASKING STUDENTS TO LEAV
  • Embargoed: 25th December 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HEBRON, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA1JOHRNJ4QGS92XZS1W5RIPTZD
  • Story Text: INTRO: - Israeli soldiers have again confronted Palestinian students wanting to enter their university in the West Bank city of Hebron.

    Israeli security forces barricaded Hebron's Islamic University on Tuesday (December 10), scuffling with students who tried to break into the West Bank campus in defiance of an Israeli closure order in effect since March.

    Hundreds of students, angry at an Israeli denial that it had agreed to reopen the univerity after a standoff on Monday (December 9), gathered near the campus and some tried to break in. But they were stopped by Israeli jeeps and troops who ringed the campus in the early morning.

    Soldiers briefly detained one student but no one was hurt.

    Palestinian students of the Polytechnic Institute in Hebron, a separate two-year college, also entered the campus which had been welded shut by the Israeli army since March and were cleaning up the place to resume studies.

    An Israeli army spokesman confirmed that the Polytechnic was given permission to reopen. About 2,500 students study at the Polytechnic and the Hebron University.

    Israel agreed to hand over about 80 percent of Hebron to Palestinian self-rule under a deal signed last year but the long-overdue redeployment has yet to take place.

    Israeli-PLO talks on the handover are currently stuck over Israeli demands to change the original agreement to provide more security for about 400 Jewish settlers who live and study in Hebron amidst more than 100,000 Palestinians.

    While Israeli soldiers confronted Palestinian students, hundreds of Jewish settlers gathered at Avraham Avino neighborhood in Hebron, to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Hannukah.

    Israel last Thursday (December 5) began the eight-day holiday of Hannukah, also known as the festival of lights.

    At sundown on each of the eight days of Hannukah, a candle is lit. Children receive presents throughout the holiday, and people eat traditional jam-filled doughnuts. The holiday commemorates the rededication of the second Jewish temple of antiquity by the Maccabees.

    Settlers spokesperson Noam Arnon said during the celebrations that hundreds of Jews gathered in the city to show their support with the Jewish community in town and to protest against the possible army redeployment.


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