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Bethlehem
University Office of President/Vice Chancellor P.O. Box 9, Bethlehem, Palestine |
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Phone:
972-2-2741241
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Bethlehem
University Office of President/Vice Chancellor P.O. Box 9, Bethlehem, Palestine |
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Phone:
972-2-2741241
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PRESS RELEASE COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT INTENSIFIES IN BETHLEHEM Bethlehem University Struggles to Complete Semester From November 22, 2002 to December 22, 2002 the people of Bethlehem suffered under 24-hour curfews (military lockdowns; house arrests) for 21 full days (661 hours) with partial curfew liftings on 9 days (59 hours). The curfews were lifted for 8 full days and 2 partial days from December 22-31. In the past few days a new form of punishment is being inflicted with greater regularity, that of announcing curfew liftings and changing them unexpectedly. This is another form of psychological punishment which exacerbates an already intolerable situation brought about by the latest Israeli re-occupation of Bethlehem. Bethlehem University continues its struggle to complete the semester. However, to plan and to assure remaining class days and a reliable schedule for examinations, is becoming almost impossible. In the past four days alone we have faced the following circumstances:
The punitive actions which the Israeli army continues to impose on innocent Palestinians--families, women, school children, working men—the devastating effects this continuing inhumane treatment is having are taking a terrible toll. A people is being humiliated, beaten into the ground; malnutrition among children is growing worse; a legitimate right to education of thousands of young people is being dramatically compromised; thousands of hours of time are wasted each day—on those rare days when movement is permitted--waiting to get through checkpoints; the morale of a people is being crushed with very little to hope for--just more lockdowns, short-lived liftings, inability to have any control of their lives. What is being done to the people and to Bethlehem itself--once a revered city of Christendom now reduced to a war-torn, dirty, occupied military playground—is reprehensible, outrageous, unjustified. We at Bethlehem University plead for the right to continue educating young Palestinians and the right for our neighbors in Bethlehem to be able to live, to move, to breathe free air, to work and to educate their children. Can anyone do anything to change this systematic strangulation? End the occupation! End the occupation!
Brother
Vincent Malham, FSC
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Bethlehem University October 30, 2001 PRESS RELEASE
During five long days and nights of heavy Israeli bombardment, we at Bethlehem University pleaded for international intervention to help spare our Vatican-sponsored Palestinian university from further shelling of our campus. The many precautionary attempts which were taken to try to protect the University from the heavy exchange of gunfire around the University, including daily appeals to local, national, consular and ecclesiastical authorities, as well as strengthening security measures and flying the Vatican flag, did not, unfortunately, protect the University from frequent shelling. Over a period of almost a week every building on campus was hit by gunfire, with evidence of at least 94 tank grenade hits and hundreds of bullets found in the aftermath. Around 139 windows were broken, including 50 in the new soon-to-be-completed Academic Building. The residence of the De La Salle Christian Brothers (among whom are eight Americans, three British and one Palestinian) was pummeled by at least 110 bullets, including several in or near bedrooms and the chapel of the Brothers. Serious damage was incurred in the Midwifery Laboratory, to water storage tanks and water pipes, to various parts of historic Bethlehem Hall, to stonework on several buildings around campus and in the new Academic Building. With the destruction of the wires for the Internet and damage to telephone connections the University lost a primary means of communication for several days.
Considering the heavy bombardment to which we were subjected, we are extremely fortunate that no one at the University was killed or injured. We are, however, deeply saddened at the losses in four families of employees, including a son, a sister, an uncle and a nephew. Each additional day Israeli tanks and soldiers remained in Bethlehem, determined Palestinian resistance to the aggressive occupation continued and thousands of lives of innocent people were endangered. Attacks on Christian institutions and holy sites such as Bethlehem University, Holy Family Maternity Hospital, the Children's Crèche, St. Catherine's Nativity Church, St. Joseph's School, on Ayda and Azza Refugee Camps, as well as on other important sites such as Husseini Hospital, the Paradise Hotel, and the Hodali and Qara'a Buildings also continued wreaking incalculable damage, physical and psychological, to the city of Christ's birth.
We at Bethlehem University appeal to you to do whatever you can to try to put an end to this escalating tragic situation:
1-Pressure Israel to withdraw immediately its military from all other Palestinian territories.
2-Demand that Israel pay reparation for all the damage done to the University and elsewhere.
3-Insist that those responsible be brought to justice for inhumane attacks on innocent persons.
4-Pray for a just peace for all.
Brother Vincent Malham, FSCPresident-Vice Chancellor
