All of them who are on campus have a story to tell. The trip to school that would, in normal times, take them 20 minutes, now averages one and a half hours. Birzeit is but one of the nine universities in the West Bank and Gaza. At the beginning of this Intifada, I was very enthusiastic and I would go to throw stones in Al Bireh. Now I am very tired and sad.
Palestinian students are a highly politicized sector of Palestinian society.
There is no doubt that Palestinian students contribute to the Intifada. They also pay their prices. Al Najah University alone mourns the deaths of eight of its students. Last week, the university's Tulkarm campus was hit by Israeli shells, causing the destruction of the agricultural department's animal farm. In Gaza, four students driving in a car were killed by a helicopter gunship attack late last year.