The Israeli occupation authorities systematically and persistently target Palestinian university students for arbitrary arrest and detention. This practice, amounting to a form of collective punishment, all protected under international legal standards. Each year, the Israeli occupation authorities viciously arrest and detain dozens of Palestinian students, often under the pretext of involvement with student groups deemed “illegal” under Israeli military orders. Though the Israeli occupation authorities target students and student groups across Palestine, students at Birzeit University have been subjected to the most consistent, systematic attacks, raids on campus, arbitrary detention orders, and torture and ill-treatment.

Over recent years, these attacks and arbitrary arrests have only increased. Currently, more than 70 Palestinian students are held in Israeli occupation prisons. Further, in both 2021 and 2022, Birzeit University students experienced military raids and mass arbitrary arrest campaigns on campus. The 2021 incident, which saw over 45 Palestinian students detained and arrested for participating in a solidarity visit to a recently demolished Palestinian home, came on the heels of the Israel occupation forces’ mass arrest and detention campaigns amid the Palestinian Unity Uprising happening that summer.1 Similarly, in 2022, undercover Israeli occupation forces raided Birzeit to target a student council meeting with over a dozen students, including the heads of various student blocs, arresting five Palestinian students and indiscriminately firing live ammunition, wounding at least one student.2