Israeli Forces Demolish Birzeit Memorial to 38 Students
Israeli soldiers entered Birzeit University near Ramallah at dawn on Monday, Oct. 5, and knocked down a stone memorial that listed 38 students killed by Israel.
The troops arrived with 10 military vehicles, according to the most recent account of the raid. A bulldozer pushed over the pillar known as the Martyrs' Monument. Soldiers then took the marble stone away from the campus. Al Jazeera
In the place where the pillar stood, the forces left a planter with a young fig tree. It carried the words "Water it twice." The stone was gone. The planter stayed.
The monument was built between 1994 and 1996. It carried the names of Birzeit students and former students killed by Israeli forces. The first name was Sharaf al-Tayyibi, shot dead by Israeli forces on the campus in 1984. The last name added was Omar al-Naasan, killed by soldiers in al-Mughayyir east of Ramallah on September 2. Al Jazeera
The university says this was the fifth Israeli entry onto the Birzeit campus since the start of 2026 and the 28th since 2002. The administration condemned the destruction as a violation of international law, the rules meant to protect schools in war, and as an attack on education and national memory. The campus raid happened around the same time as wider detention operations. Israeli forces arrested 12 Palestinians in West Bank raids in the same period. Arab News A separate, earlier report from January about a different entry onto the Birzeit campus said 11 Palestinian students were wounded. Wafa
The broader context here is the role of universities as places that hold political memory, not only classes. A list of names on a central pillar is different from papers in an archive. Students pass it every day. No ceremony is needed to read it. Replacing it with a plant that needs care changes the site from remembrance to upkeep.
Looking at what this means for protection of education in conflict, this sequence will likely get attention for two reasons. First, the university's count places the demolition in a longer pattern of campus entries, not a single operation. Second, the university links legal protection for schools with collective identity. That link is where diplomats and legal experts often disagree, and where further disputes over records, access, and commemoration on campus can be expected.
