UN-backed university calls for research on ‘importance of popular resistance’ against Israel

Al Quds Open University has requested academic papers on “popular resistance” to Israel in life and literature for a conference on the subject next month.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Al Quds Open University, a Palestinian institution of higher learning that is partially funded by the United Nations, is requesting original academic research submissions for a conference on “Popular Resistance in Palestine in Literature and Reality” to be held in November in Qalqilya.

“Popular resistance” is a term that can mean non-violent protest. However, “Popular Resistance” committees are armed Palestinian groups designated as terrorist organizations by Israel and the United States.

The university website’s conference overview clearly supports both kinds of “resistance,” as it states that one of the reasons the gathering is important is “due to the significant imbalance of military power between the Palestinians and the Israeli Occupation.”

It calls for original research that – among other subjects –  “shed[s] light on the importance of popular resistance in protecting the lands and resisting colonization.”

Papers in this area can also include “Palestinian experiences in popular resistance compared with Arab and international experiences,” and “The role of Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission [CWRC] in confronting the prevention of judaization [sic] of the land.”

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s CWRC promotes the removal of all Jewish communities from Judea and Samaria and the establishment of a Palestinian state on the entire area in their place. It is a co-sponsor of the conference.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has funded Al Quds Open University courses and helped establish its web portal that enables thousands of Arab students to study at the institute remotely. Some of them, however, are convicted Palestinian terrorists learning from their jail cells.

In a June graduation ceremony at the university, Qadri Abu Bakr, head of the Palestinian Authority’s PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, said that over 900 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel were currently learning through this portal.

At that ceremony, a song was performed that promoted terror. It’s lyrics included, “Give me the machine gun so that I can keep going…The machine gun and the bullet are the essence of the path.”