November 8, 2009

Detentions Leave Palestinian Students in Limbo

Threat of Arrest Clouds Palestinian Students' Academic Plans 1

David Blumenfeld for The Chronicle

The Ofer military base, near Ramallah, where Ashraf Abuiram, a student at Birzeit U., says he was interrogated. There are 85 Birzeit students still sitting in Israeli jails.

By Matthew Kalman

Birzeit, West Bank

Ashraf Abuiram should have graduated from college long ago, but his life took an unexpected turn.

In late 2005, when he was a second-year student pursuing a degree in sociology at Birzeit University, 20 jeeps carrying 100 Israeli soldiers showed up at his home in the dead of night. He was arrested, detained without a trial, and spent a year in a prison camp in the south of Israel before being released and allowed to return to college.

Mr. Abuiram was suspected of aiding

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