Palestinian Authority forces suppress student protest in West Bank

Palestinian Authority Security Services (PSS) have reportedly suppressed a student rally at a West Bank university using brutal force, leaving some protesters and academics wounded.

Security forces at An-Najah National University in Nablus physically assaulted students and used pepper spray to force them out of the college campus during the protest rally, which was staged in response to the university's decision to expel a group of students last week, the UK-based Middle East Eye (MEE) reported Tuesday, citing social media footage of the encounter and local sources.

According to the report, "plain-clothed security officers could be seen chasing students in the vicinity of the university and gunshots could be heard in the background." It noted, however, that no gunshot wounds were reported as of late Tuesday during the crackdown "supported by the PSS."

The violent encounter, the report added, stemmed from an earlier protest rally last Wednesday organized by the Islamic bloc of students affiliated with the Gaza-based Hamas movement, during which undercover Palestinian Authority (PA) security officers and members of the student arm of the ruling Fatah Party – known as the "Shabiba" – physically assaulted students and journalist.

The university then expelled 10 students in connection with the brawls that followed the protest. Five of those dismissed were members of the Islamic bloc and five from its rival Shabiba. The decision was censured by both student factions.

Citing a student member of the Independent Movement – another student group that organized Tuesday's rally – MEE further reported that the call for the latest protest came after a meeting with the university's administrators ended at an impasse.

The student said the crackdown began early on Tuesday when security guards blocked students from reaching a meeting point inside the university, leaving some of them trapped inside and a large number outside the university's main gate.

When the students who were inside decided to go to the main gate and demand entry for the other students, security forces began beating the protesters and forced many outside.

Hamas slammed the PA's "suppression" of peaceful protests, describing it a "barbaric and criminal attack by the security thuggery for which the university administration bears responsibility."

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During the rally, nearly 40 female students gathered inside the university yard and refused to leave until a professor intervened and granted them safe passage, the report noted, citing student eyewitnesses from the Independent Movement, who underlined that PA security guards and members of the Shabiba pursued some of the female students with weapons and threatened to hurt them.

Professors Nasser al-Din al-Shaer and Amer Joud Allah were reportedly attacked by the guards while trying to stop the attack and were taken to hospital.

The An-Najah University claimed in a statement that violence started after "external groups and some of the expelled students tried to storm the gates of the university," noting that a number of students and security guards were injured.

The Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights also released a statement saying it held the university administration "fully responsible" for the behavior of the security guards.

An-Najah University, meanwhile, has been witness to an escalation of the crackdown against pro-Hamas students by PA-affiliated forces within the college campus since 2007, when differences between the Islamic Hamas and the secular Fatah broke into the open, with Hamas-affiliated representatives scoring a landslide victory in parliamentary elections.

In the same year, Islamic bloc member Muhammad Raddad, 20, was killed on campus when PA security officers and university guards fired live ammunition at students following a heated student meeting, according to MEE.

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